We Save Lives: An exercise in reversal

 

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DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS

BELOW DECK ON THE SEA-WATCH

 

We save lives. We

Elevate. We

 

Rise early.  We

Roll up our sleeves.  We

 

Sing cures.  We

Draw blood.  We

 

Dance with gods.  We

Live danger.

With apologies to poet Gwendoline Brooks:  

We Real Cool

THE POOL PLAYERS.
SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL.

We real cool. We                           
Left school. We

Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We
Die soon.

From The Bean Eaters by Gwendolyn Brooks, published by Harpers. © 1960 by Gwendolyn Brooks.

 

Day Three at NaPoWriMo:  Find a shortish poem that you like, and rewrite each line, replacing each word (or as many words as you can) with words that mean the opposite. For example, you might turn “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” to “I won’t contrast you with a winter’s night.” Your first draft of this kind of “opposite” poem will likely need a little polishing, but this is a fun way to respond to a poem you like, while also learning how that poem’s rhetorical strategies really work. (It’s sort of like taking a radio apart and putting it back together, but for poetry).

 My blog poems are rough drafts.

Please respect my copyright.

© 2023 Susan L. Chast