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comment by thenewgreen
thenewgreen  ·  4268 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Today's Writing Prompt: What You Had To Do

Hang up

Stop the car

Find a french-fry for bait

A meandering canine

Must stop tempting fate!

I was recently on the phone with steve while driving down the highway and saw a dog roaming the lanes of 70mph traffic. I tried my best but he wouldn't come to me. I called scrimetime, a fellow dog lover for suggestions. He said "call 911". I did and they sent out animal control to pick the dog up. I scribbled these words on my notebook. -Silly, but within the parameters of your assignment Lil.

I was sure the french fry would work!





mk  ·  4268 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I saw a pregnant pit bull jog down the highway median in the rain the other day. Before I realized what had happened, I was moving too far past, and it was headed the other way.

I wonder how she would have behaved in my back seat. I regret not being able to try.

djw  ·  4268 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I fear I'll sound dense for saying this, but I can't tell if this is a comment or a response poem to thenewgreen's, because it has no line breaks but it does have a rhyme and cadence, accidental or not. Which is hilarious if it is meant as a plain old comment.

    I saw a pregnant pitbull jog down the highway median in the rain the other day. Before I realized what had happened, I was moving too far past, and it was headed the other way.

    I wonder how she would have behaved in my back seat. I regret not being able to try.

Although I would tell you to consider rephrasing the second stanza so it sounded a little less inappropriate to say about a dog, haha.

mk  ·  4268 days ago  ·  link  ·  

LOL. I'm a poet that didn't know it.

Thanks for that.

Breaking it up like that really does make the last line nasty.

thenewgreen  ·  4267 days ago  ·  link  ·  

That's just awesome. I actually enjoyed reading it that way. I agree that the last stanza is a bit "dirty".

lil  ·  4268 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Totally within the parameters of the assignment. When I've used this assignment in writing workshops, the responses are usually about life-changing, identity-defining actions; however (mk, note semi-colon!), the knowing-what-I-had-to-do events that most quickly come to mind for me are more of the dog-bait variety. When it comes to life-changing actions, I usually know what I have to do long, long before I actually do it. I feel like Brutus before murdering Caesar where he said:

    Between the acting of a dreadful thing And the first motion, all the interim is Like a phantasma or a hideous dream. (Julius Caesar, Act 2, Scene 1, 65-67)
Thx, tng, for giving the snowball a push.
mk  ·  4268 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Feels good, doesn't it? :)