Hey y’all!

It’s Day 4 of National Poetry Writing Month and the prompt is to write a triolet. A triolet is an eight-line poem. All the lines are in iambic tetramenter, and the first, fourth, and seventh lines are identical, as are the second and final lines. This means that the poem begins and ends with the same couplet. Beyond this, there is a tight rhyme scheme (helped along by the repetition of lines) — ABaAabAB.

Here’s my triolet:

PROGNOSIS

By Farah Lawal Harris, © 2023

They say my tumor is shrinking!

And for that, I am so grateful.

Just when I stopped overthinking,

they say my tumor is shrinking.

I stared at fear without blinking

and swore. My healing was fateful,

they say. My tumor is shrinking,

and for that, I am so grateful.

I was feeling extra inspired today and I ended up writing a second poem:

FLIGHT

By Farah Lawal Harris , © 2023

I feel like flying today—

not in a practical way,

but I must say,

this high and I

are meeting for the first time.

You look at me and ask, “Why?”

ask if I’ve discovered a new supply

of healing from Earth. And I sigh

because I feel like flying today,

not mundanely explaining away

why euphoria rung the doorbell

asking for a place to stay.

Depression kicked her out, she said.

Chronic pain triggered her, she said.

Cancer delivered her, we said.

I invite her in, make her bed,

put my baggage to the side

and we fly and fly

and we magnify

and I check my eyes

to see if this is a dream

and I open my mouth to

clouds tasting like ice cream

and I open my soul

and array of colors beam.

This is my personal heaven.

I feel like flying today.

So I will.