Wednesday, April 30, 2025

Cheap Thrills: Day 30

It was summer and I was 17
Everyone said he was Bad News
But I sat his Ford, sunshine-yellow
Crown Royal bags on his visors
Dash littered with Reds

He was taking turns too quick
Like he wanted to play with our lives
And I sat politely, ankles crossed
Concealing my thrill, trying not to say
This trip to Wendy's felt like a jailbreak

I ignored the hair tie under the seat,
The one that didn't belong to me.
I ignored the smell of perfume,
Fragrance I wasn't wearing, because
It's easy to give sin a nicer name

He said let me play you a song:
Take Me Out, by Franz Ferdinand

A year later, it played
Behind some US Army propaganda
Some mothers' babies crawling through mud
Jumping from planes and calling it character

This time I'd abstain f
rom vice
Under the dodgy guise of thrill
I wised up, and I won't fall
Not for some Scottish rock song
Not for some military doctrine
Not for some spineless boy

Prompt: "In his meandering poem, “Grateful Dead Tapes,” poet Ed Skoog riffs on the eponymous tapes that he’s found in a secondhand store, remembering various instances of hearing the band, both live and in recording. Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem that also describes different times in which you’ve heard the same band or piece of music across your lifetime."

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