constructing poetry

Uncle Seymore's Desk

my living room is invaded.
Uncle Seymore’s desk,
looming like a mausoleum
imposing, cold,
home to all the family skeletons
except his own.

when it first came to me,
I asked Mama who Seymore Z. FitzSimmons was,
and what the Z was for,
and whether we really needed a desk
that weighed more than
couch, television, and piano combined,
but she just shook her head as she stared.

he’d sit there, she told me,
with spectacles perched
at the tip of his nose,
ready to be pushed up
when my cousins and I
dared enter. then he would look
down, staring at us until
we felt we must tell him . . . all.

she circled it as she talked,
keeping what distance she could
as though it were explosive.
one day he caught me, she said,
I’d almost forgotten.
his fingers were ink stained
and long, and they gripped my shoulder
like a vulture’s talons, and he showed
the desk to me.

she approached it then,
like a kitten approaching a sleeping
snake, curious but skittish.
I wonder if I remember . . .
and then she reached out and pressed
the top of the lectern
while twisting one drawer handle
the wrong way, and like a giant
puzzle box, the desk opened
and at its heart, reams of paper
stained with a clear hand.

the skeletons unveiled, she left me,
and I gathered the pages,
reading stories of half forgotten
names and half familiar deeds
recorded by the one
who knew all the stories.

I’ve read them through,
and noticed the absence
that glares at me—no tales
belong to Seymore Z. FitzSimmons.
he shared everyone’s stories,
but never even told me
the meaning of his Z.

line count: 54

Prompt for: April 30, 2016 ▼

Subject or Theme: You have been bequeathed an antique schoolmaster's desk from your Great-great Uncle Seymore Z. FitzSimmons. You have never even heard of him, but the desk arrives and now sits taking up a great deal of space in your living room. It is made of mahogany, weighs a ton and has many, many small drawers, nooks, cubby-holes and ... you discover a secret drawer. What's inside? Note: (Schoolmaster's desks often had a well on one side, covered by a slanting surface that served as a lectern from which the teacher would pontificate on the lesson of the day.)

Words to use: ink, skeleton, must
Forbidden words: secret, antique, inside,


Minimum 30 lines, rhyming or not. Remember, do not use forbidden words ANYWHERE, including title or the brief description.