The winning poem for the challenge on learning gender roles
was written by Pamela Larson, a poet who won second place in the May challenge
for fairy tale poems. Here is her poem:
Boys Will Be Boys
Alone
in my room playing school with faceless students
Mother
scolds me out the door into the sun.
I
go to the garage and set up a shoe store
we
sell sandals made from a leaf and a stick.
When
business is slow I tinker with my bicycle
changing
the parts around with a wrench.
When
forced to be social I liked
quiet,
curious, but impersonal boys.
You
could count on them not to ask anything
so
you never had to tell anything.
We
would listen to an album
and
I would never be asked
my
favorite song
or
color
or
my favorite anything.
Boys
read books without sharing deep thoughts
instead
entertaining with quoted
character
impersonations
and
improvised plot twists.
Most
everything was measured
on
surface detail.
Years
later I sit at a table
on
Wednesday Board Game Night
me
and three guys
ready
to compete
for
European victory points
and
the Best Strategy Skills title.
I
laugh when I find out
they’ve
played together for three years
not
one of them knowing
what
the other does for a living.
I
have not escaped being a girl.
~Pamela
Larson
Pamela Larson has been published in The Daily Herald, Karitos
Journal, CRAM/JOMP Poetry Series
and on PoetrySuperhighway.com and DagdaPublishing.com. She has won awards from
Highland Park Poetry and the Illinois State Poetry Society. You can find her
artwork on the cover of A Midnight Snack published by Poetic License,
Inc., as well as a cinepoem (youTube link) on the HighlandParkPoetry.org
homepage. Pamela retains copyright on the poem published here.
Thank you to Sandy Stark for judging the poems this month. Watch for a new challenge coming on July 1.
Poetry Workshops and
Groups
If you are looking for help in improving your poetry, check
the workshop announcement posted here on May 28.
If you live in Illinois, consider joining the Illinois State
Poetry Society (http://illinoispoets.org/)
and/or Poets and Patrons of Chicago (http://www.poetsandpatrons.net/).
If you live in Illinois but in an area without an ISPS chapter, contact the
society (using contact information on the website) about helping form a new
chapter.
There are wonderful poetry societies in many other states.
See the website of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies (http://www.nfsps.com/links.htm) for
links to 28 state societies. If you live in Wisconsin, check out the Wisconsin
Fellowship of Poets (http://wfop.org/).
©
Wilda Morris
