NaPoWriMo 2016 Day 29

Hometown Goodness 

Sahlen’s hotdogs sold
in Arizona, brings me
taste of Buffalo

Shawn and I decided to move out to Arizona at the start of 1999. Shawn was recuperating from losing his spleen back in November due to mono and we were living with my mom and dad. At the beginning of 1999, we had a lot of snow in Buffalo. Both Shawn and I were tired of dealing with snow and cold. We decided to move to warmer climes. When we first moved out here, we would fly home to visit family every summer and pack an extra box of hometown food to bring back to Arizona. We can now buy real hotdogs at our local grocery store. Yesterday Rachael and I went out to get an oil change for the car. A first for me – you know 42 is the meaning of everything; I guess it’s a good thing I learn how to keep the car maintained. Note – I do NOT have a driver’s license; it’s not as bad as it sounds. But since Rachael got her license at the end of last summer and she’ll be going to college at the end of this summer, I thought someone should teach her vehicle maintenance. Then we went out to Yogurtini for some frozen yogurt and to support 4 paws, the local cat shelter Rachael works at. She asked me what we were doing for dinner. Well Nonnie did say Fry’s had Sahlen’s hotdogs.

Remember summer
playing outside after dark
catch fireflies in jars

NaPoWriMo Prompt – Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem based on things you remember. Try to focus on specific details, and don’t worry about whether the memories are of important events, or are connected to each other. You could start by adopting Brainard’s uniform habit of starting every line with “I remember,” and then you could either cut out all the instances of “I remember,” or leave them all in, or leave just a few in. At any rate, hopefully you’ll wind up with a poem that is heavy on concrete detail, and which uses that detail as its connective tissue. Happy writing!

Speaking of memories, Silver Birch Press is running a learning to drive series now. Lots of great poems and memories on how it feels to drive for the first time.

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