Yard Sale of Thoughts

The doughy banks of pastry stream,
crispy from the oven’s sun,
crackle like a crumbly beach
the children shatter as they run.

Cinnamon bun rock rapids,
slippery with icing spray,
jut from my jiggly pastry stream
where we intend to spend the day.

In the shallows, yellow cake fish
rise and rest, then misbehave
in creamy currents of icing,
the star dessert on this special day.

And I am settled in a sweet ride,
glazed lemon doughnut float,
slowly drifting in butter-cream batter,
enjoying the smell of my sugary boat.

My two strawberry tarts ride atop
a shimmery chocolate éclair canoe,
scooping at dough as they talk
of all the tasting they plan to do.

A strudel side-stream breaks away,
pebbles like petits fours.
Meringues and macaroons piled
in various colors on the shores.

Behind a Linzer torte lattice,
red currant carnations top pork pies.
Our destination for this evening,
as we celebrate someone turning five.

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NaPoWrimo 2021 Day Three. I’m taking on this challenge to create new verse each day, and I’m excited to share that experience with all of you. I will be gaining inspiration throughout from napowritmo.net daily prompts. Join me in verse.

Today’s challenge was a bit time consuming, but ended up being very rewarding. We were asked to create a “Personal Universal Deck,” and then to write a poem using it. The idea of the “Personal Universal Deck” originated with the poet and playwright Michael McClure, who gave the project of creating such decks to his students in a 1976 lecture at Naropa University. Basically, you will need 50 index cards or small pieces of paper, and on them, you will write 100 words (one on the front and one on the back of each card/paper) using the rules found here.

Once you have your deck put together, shuffle it a few times. Now select a card or two, and use them as the basis for a new poem. Today, I drew the words stream and pastry. Timely, as I was baking a cake this morning for my son’s upcoming birthday.