back

Prompt 2:

The topic is yours to choose. The only stipulation for this prompt, however, is that your poem must include the following four words:

  1. exacting
  2. oxygen
  3. delicate
  4. drastic

Eodd

Eight letters are not enough
X-acto knives would cut too much
A poem just two lines above
Contoured to fit like a glove
The other meaning asks a lot
I have few lines to write of thought
No time to indulge my self-tormentor
Gravity says I must enter enter

Or maybe it's the atmosphere
Xenon is for thee sick sneer
Your life-air is for time stew
Gas that lets me write what's due
Exhale, along with water vapor
Notation onto digital paper

Destructible with a single graze
Ears cannot avert their gaze
Listen like a to-stone stare
I deliver a poem without compare
China that would put me in debt
Ancient antiques I am unable to get
Tips of my fingers under I caress
Eight letters, no more no less

Damn these self-imposed restrictions!
Repetition repetition repetition
Am I being excessive?
Self-descriptive
Time, I'm short on
I must finish this poem
Closing line