Hey y’all!

For Day 18 of National Poetry Writing Month, the prompt is to write an abecedarian poem – a poem in which the word choice follows the words/order of the alphabet. You could write a very strict abecedarian poem, in which there are twenty-six words in alphabetical order, or you could write one in which each line begins with a word that follows the order of the alphabet. This is a prompt that lends itself well to a certain playfulness.

Here’s my poem:

“ABCDE!”

By Farah Lawal Harris, © 2023

“Abcde!”

A

Big,

Corny,

Dumb,

Exasperating, no-longer

Funny punchline to a

Goofy,

Horribly

Insensitive

Joke about “ghetto names.”

Kinda

Lame.

My

Name, Farah, ain’t

Ordinary, but

Particularly

Quirky and

Rare to some American ears. Not like

Sarah,

The name,

Unfortunately assigned to me

Very often.

Whitewashing, though

eXpected, is a

Yucky part of the

Zeitgeist.