Sestina Day 20: The Ice Maiden

I found out yesterday that it’s  NaPoWriMo this month. They are providing a different writing prompt for every day in April, and the idea is to write 30 poems in 30 days. Since I’m going to be doing that anyway, I reckon I may as well use their prompts throughout April.

Today’s prompt is ‘Write a poem that incorporates the titles of three books you have in your house.’

I cheated a bit, taking the title of a story within a book for my title: Hans Christian Andersen’s The Ice Maiden, and then I used David Sedaris’ Me Talk Pretty One Day and Roald Dahl’s Boy to generate my keywords.

 

The Ice Maiden

I know that you all want to be like me

Because you imitate the way I talk.

But, honestly, you’ll never be as pretty.

You just need to accept that I’m the one

Who know’s what’s cool. It changes day by day.

I’ll tell you what to do to get a boy

 

To like you, if you really want a boy

-Friend. They’ve all got a crush on me

I could just pick a different one each day

But then, I’d have to listen to them talk

And I’m the only fascinating one.

It’s hard work being popular and pretty

 

Because it’s not enough, just being pretty

You must learn how to captivate a boy.

Don’t really seem to care, is lesson one

When anybody wants to hang with me

I laugh at them and mock the way they talk

And sure enough they will be back next day

 

He’ll soon be coming over every day

It doesn’t work if you’re not really pretty

But if you are, the more you laugh and talk

As if you didn’t care, the more that boy

Will fancy you. I mean,just look at me

The boys all want to be the lucky one

 

Well, some of them, a few maybe, well one

Or two. They did the other day

No, really, all the boys do fancy me!

And all the girls wish they were half as pretty

It’s just that I don’t want to have a boy

Friend. But I could. Shut up! Don’t talk!

 

In fact, no boy will listen to me talk

They hate me, and avoid me every day.

I’m just the pretty, bitchy, lonely one.