a challenge!

I'm in danger of getting really angry about current events at the moment (Inner monologue: You know those Christian people who are a religious minority in other countries that you're so mad about, talking about their mistreatment? When you go after Jews or Muslims in this country, it's the same damned thing ...).

So, instead, I will let the anger subside and focus on something I can do something about at this precise moment: a writing challenge! Ooh! Hard to be angry about a writing challenge! 

Frustrated? Maybe. Angry? Never!

So here it is: I have a series of poems about children. Each poem is a child put in an ambiguous situation. The poems have no conclusions, and most stop mid-sentence.

The challenge: come up with a conclusion. It does not have to be in poetic form. If it's poetry, it doesn't have to rhyme. It can be prose. It can be photos. It can be drawings. It can be music. It can be video. It can be anything you like, as long as it provides a conclusion. You can share or not (please share, please share!). And I hope it provides some enjoyment of the non-angering kind.

I'll give you a couple to choose from. Warning: I wrote them using a structure Edgar Allen Poe used, and they rhyme, so they sound quite formal and old-fashioned. Y'all know how to read, though, so you'll be fine.

Ready? Go!

Ozymandias.

A child named Ozymandias,

The famous boy king of the River Nile,

Had beckoned to us with a regal smile –

The royal He had come to play with us.

Amongst the vast and undulating dunes,

Amongst triangulated pyramids,

The royal He and we –rambunctious kids –

Did laugh and play and whistle happy tunes.

But then, a monumental cloud of dust

Arose, obscuring everything with sand.

Young Ozymandias put out his hand

For us to grab, but we could not.  He just

...

Kitty.

Oh, Kitty Cat!  So very kittenish

Is little Catherine on Hallowe’en,

With pointed ears aglow with lantern sheen,    

With tail swinging with a swish-swish-swish.

Our whiskered little girl, the Kitty Cat,

Went dancing house to house on prancing paws.

She grasped her bag of sweets with painted claws.

She twirled and whirled –a feline acrobat.

Beyond a grove of lantern-lighted trees,

Young Kitty found one eerie final house.

She crept up, quiet as a tasty mouse.

She rang the bell, and then her trembling knees

...