April First

April First

In middle school I tried to trick my friends
with a fake nickel I bought with my own money.
It squirted water when I squeezed a little bulb.

At least, it was supposed to fool them. Instead,
it was bulky plastic and a pale gray that did not
resemble a coin at all. It didn't even squirt water.

The first of April became a day of disappointment
and my tanking mental health left me obsessing
about whether everyone thought I was a fool.

Fast forward several decades and my son
Has the same desire to take part in a fun tradition
and the same hesitation to be fooled in front of others.

He turned insomnia on the last night of March
into a chance to trick his family with a black
Sharpie and trick that would make us smile.

He insisted the milk had gone bad and brought me
the carton that had a mean face drawn on in the night.
I laughed in delight at his April prank with no fool.

Contest Details ▼

This was entered into DWG: Poet, Know it, Show it! Contest  and The Contest Challenge . The rules of the contest were to write a story poem of at least 16-64 lines. Poems needed to include action and emotion and those words needed to be in bold. The prompt was: April Fools or Wise, what you do you plan to do and how do you feel about it?