by Thomas Pulsifer
My name is Molly.
I met my partner through speed dating of all things.
He’s transmasculine, and that isn’t an issue for me.
What is an issue is that God-awful faux hawk.
We’ve spent hours on FaceTime.
We’ve shared in our love of crunk.
But even after all my Google searches,
I still can’t find a reason to tolerate such a terrible ‘do.
If that hair doesn’t change soon,
I may have to walk back from this relationship.
Lately, I’ve felt myself just drifting by
Feeling the urge to pull the e-brake to slow things down
Watching my life unfold from the dashcam of the vehicle that is my body
I don’t know whether it’s some sort of dark energy overcoming me
But I feel like the perfect storm is brewing
I may not know where I’m going
But I can sense the open-source of happiness approaching
Amirite to feel this way
I guess I’ll just have to wait and see…
Enjoy a picture of my family and I from early 2000! Guess which baby I am.
I was really bummed that I missed the Daily Create where one uses the words that were added to the dictionary in their birth year. Therefore, I was very excited to find that it is in the Assignment Bank! It is titled “Never Fear – It’s The Words Of The Year” and submitted by Anonymous. It is worth two stars.
The description is as follows: “Merriam-Webster keeps a year-by-year list of when words were first recorded, or first recorded as being used in a particular sense. Each year gives us a list of somewhat random unusual and mundane words. Your challenge: Take the list from some significant year, such as the year of your birth, and build a poem from the words on the list. You don’t need to be limited to just the list, unless you choose to do so. Any kind of poem will do – just make it meaningful. Assignment inspired by the ever-inspirational Amy Burvall.”
Therefore, I decided to look into my birth year: 1999. I was surprised at how applicable many of the terms were to modern day. I had no idea that many of those technologies had been formalized at the time of my birth, and it was a delightful surprise to be a little “meta” with it. One could consider my ‘freestyle poem’ a critique of my generation, though I am truthfully indifferent about my generation other than excitement over the fact that we’ll be the ones high in society one day just like all others. These are just some thoughts from a different perspective. It’s a bit rocky since I had trouble trying to connect all of the themes in a poetic manner. Regardless, please enjoy!
Today, in 1999
Gen Z, a generation revolving around public storytelling
Destined to become bloggers, manifesting thoughts into blogs
Before they are released into the lofty blogosphere
Amongst noxious clouds of mango vape.
A chillaxed vibe as they curl up with their e-readers
Clickbait nagging their attention away from stream of thought
Speech devolves into a monotonous stream of texting
Just as often as they claim this invisible world as their own.
Dashcams make it so that mirror awareness is not a priority
The only mirror observed is a handheld, coltan screen.
Suddenly and wonderfully mindful of a carbon footprint, yet
So heavy was the footfall of the old world
That there is no shoe large enough to fill the damage done.
But we believe.
All these things intangible in an epigenomic society:
It’s no wonder that sometimes they think they have
A hoarding disorder their heads.
“Never Fear – It’s The Words Of The Year” (two stars)
This assignment involved going to the website Merriam-Webster and entering a year of your choice. Doing so produces a list of words that were first recorded or started being used during that year. “Your challenge: Take the list from some significant year, such as the year of your birth, and build a poem from the words on the list.”
I chose 1988, the year of my birth and a year within the 80s, which gave me a really wild list of words. I then did my best to create a poem. It ended up being about a person trying to not fail school so they didn’t have to move back into their parent’s house, which is part of a cohousing community. I put the 1988 words in BOLD so they’re easy to find.
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
I come off as an emo gansta with a hint of himbo.
My road rage is like a mosh pit inside of a 80s limo.
No stress ball works to replace my daily risperidone.
The only way to release this pressure is with a duathlon.
Trying to finish charter school, but I’m going to need an a-fib.
I can’t even make a gif out of all these damn JPEGs.
Don’t want to be a boomerang child who returns to the nest,
Channel surfing Netflix for a docuseries unlike all the rest.
Avoided cohousing cause their kitchens are a food desert.
Their gyms get you swole, but they don’t have a stair stepper.
The only available gentleman’s club near them is in an edge city
Where the girls have oppositional deficient disorder and multiple chemical sensitivity.
For my next Assignment Bank, I chose to do Never Fear — It’s Words of the Year (2 stars), which is very similar–if not, identical–to one of the Daily Creates I did. However, instead of focusing on my birth year, I wanted to tie this one to our 80s theme, and I chose the year 1988 because that was the year my brother was born in.
While I’m not the best at writing poems, I thought I would use some of the words and write about a day in the life of a random family in the 80s.
Early morning, a mother fighting her road rage,
Clinging to a stress ball.
Right at noon, her boomerang child wasting away channel surfing,
His joypad sitting atop his Playstation, waiting for its turn.
In the evening, his swole father out at the gym,
Finishing his workout on a stair-stepper.
Late night, his sister sneaking out to a concert,
Merriam-Webster keeps a year-by-year list of when words were first recorded, or first recorded as being used in a particular sense. Each year gives us a list of somewhat random unusual and mundane words. Your challenge: Take the list from some significant year, such as the year of your birth, and build a poem from the words on the list. You don’t need to be limited to just the list, unless you choose to do so. Any kind of poem will do – just make it meaningful.
Assignment inspired by the ever-inspirational Amy Burvall
