Tom Daley, my workshop instructor for most of 2005, once gave my group a "negative poem" assignment, basically creating a reverse (i.e. film negative) version of a poem. Recently, without guiding hand, I took Robert Bly's "Counting Small-boned Bodies" (which can be found here) and tried to make a negative version. I don't think I succeeded here, but it was still fun to try.
We Are The Mortar
Can it be? Our president's monument has already begun?
He's already gathered
enough bodies to cover a field.
Look at the living encircling wall. Can you even see a crack?
Is it strong enough inside
to protect our leader from bullets, shrapnel, critics?
When the battered, bloodied flesh looks patriotic
will it peel off to make bandages
That could wrap him, preserve him even longer?
Can we donate to the human pyramid?
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