APRIL 3, 2024

PROMPT: Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a surreal prose poem. For inspiration, check out Franz Kafka’s collection of short parables (my favorite is “The Green Dragon”).

POEM:

PANDORA ET AL

Against all warning, I open the box. The once-red room violently transposes to a margin of mirrors. One woman, seven times appears before me. Smoke fills my throat as Greed licks her lips. Her sisters, laughing, staring, plotting. Old Age teases through my hair with a poisoned comb. Madness digs her nails into the small of my back. They all have my eyes. They all have my nose, my mouth, my bite. They know my fears and they smile at them. “Poor baby…” they say, “We got rid of Hope a long time ago.” 

-Alexandra Johnson, inspired by the mythos of Pandora’s Box