NaPoWriMo Day 2 - Going Off Prompt

This morning when I checked in with Napowrimo.net I wasn’t keen on the prompt which was to write a poem which was a recipe. If anyone’s done this successfully I’d be really keen to have a read! (I've just gone back and reread the prompt and it does also suggest writing something inspired by a recipe which I actually might have been able to do given some thought)

And the prompt on the Poetry School website was the same as the one from napowrimo.net yesterday – to write a poem which used short lines with Kay Ryan’s as an example.

So instead I wrote something which has been an inkling of an idea for a while.

Coffee

Terraced house turned coffee shop

in the dodgy end of town

whisper it

gentrification

he’s got a list of coffees

chalked on a blackboard

I ask for an Americano

Do they do almond milk?

Can it go in first?

Prevent curdling in the mix.

He nods

takes down the jar of Nescafe

£2.40

I bite down on my Shoreditch snobbery.

His certificates in food hygiene

sit proudly behind him

and his unwavering politeness.

That night

we shuffle home

as pub quiz losers

his window’s been smashed in

we ring the non-emergency line

who seem bored by it

it’s boarded up within 24 hours

The next night

his second one’s

a spider’s web.

An English Defence League sticker

sits proudly

in the centre.