ReadWritePoem 106 - repetition

Why am I always rushing to fulfill my poetry duties?   This is a rewrite of an old poem.  I played with the challenge – as usual.  I can’t seem to follow directions exactly.  I have to put a spin on them.

 

Challenge Description offered by Rethabile Masilo:
readwritepoem.org/blog/2009/12/18/read-write-prompt-106-repeat-after-me/

 

Candles

 

 

A score of greedy troubles
     chase me into these doors.
These doors that slam on brittle
     garnets of setting sun.
Your son slams a candle stub into my left hand;
     my neighbor fills my right with a matchbook.

 

I don’t have time to question.

 

Fifteen minutes to sundown.
     Draw the slender edge of hardened paper
down a chemical band, and
     join in fiery joy, twenty kitchen matches.
The room suddenly swarms with
     twenty extra souls--
a score more to sing with us,
      to kindle the lights of Shabbat.
Even light that is kindled
     from this whiskey stained matchbook
scooped up from the bar of the
     Centerfold Gentlemen’s Night Club.

Challenge responses by others:

readwritepoem.org/blog/2009/12/24/get-your-poem-on-106/

 

Tonight

Tonight is Chinese food at 5 Happiness with some of the Jewish community.  It will be an experience, but I fear being one of the oldest at the table(s).   The event is sponsored by a group that is welcoming young (read as 20-something) Jews into the community.   Nevertheless, it is a joy to be in-that-number as the song goes.