APRIL 1, 2024

PROMPT: And now for our daily (and totally optional) prompt. Today, we’d like to challenge you to write – without consulting the book – a poem that recounts the plot, or some portion of the plot, of a novel that you remember having liked but that you haven’t read in a long time.

POEM:

BACCHANAL

yellow parchment stained black with ink.

white hands stained red with blood.

how did we get here?

greek hymns slip off the tongue.

weak wrists slip through his fingers.

how did we get here?

pink cheeks flushed purple.

torn pages flushed down the drain.

how did we get here?

bunny’s body is poured out like water.

water, water, everywhere,

and not a drop to drink. 

-Alexandra Johnson, inspired by Donna Tart’s The Secret History