I did the first draft for this hours ago and went back to rework it to fix the logic and cut the fluff. It's is an hour and a half later at the time of writing this and it's a bit of a shambles. It's in scraps and I've rewritten the first line a good your times to the point where I don't even want it as a first line any more. I had a plan for tonight, started it before leaving the rehearsal space and was determined to at least have it uploaded by 11:30pm. LOL. Well, I had a plan. Personal lesson for today: always abandon the plan. It feels like a good idea at the time, but it makes it so much harder than it needs to be. Or you finally end up doing it once the plan has been dashed and you relax and stop caring, as demonstrated by my Day 1 poem. But yes. Abandon the plan. Always ignore it (unless it's an essay; in which case, follow it unless it's deviated from the task. Or your life. This is very bad advice. Don't take it.)

Today's is a response to Clipper by SugarJ Poet, which is in turn a #NaPoWriMo response to I Go For Long Walks Now by Omar Bynon, published in the Barbican Young Poets Anthology, pg. 7. Please check out both poems.

HEARTBURN AND STRESS

(after Clipper by Jeremiah "SugarJ" Brown)

These days I stay away from sour fruit
because I’m too prone to heartburn
and wretch when what should be sweet is sour.
So I never understood how you or my brother could enjoy tart citrus.

Then I remember the time Mom developed a stress ulcer
and the doctors told her to avoid dairy and white bread.

As I offer you half of my sour tangerine
and the half I’ve eaten summons stomach acid,
you tell me you saw our friend today.
I ask you how he is and you tell me of the bags he was clutching under his eyes.

Later I text him what the doctors told my Mom
about the dangers of bread to the body;
how some things are better shed than given,
how it is better to spill milk than drink it, and at least take some pressure off your eyes.