Confessional

Day 5: write a poem in which laughter comes at what might otherwise seem an inappropriate moment – or one that the poem invites the reader to think of as inappropriate.

My poem records a moment of shocked laughter yesterday, not exactly inappropriate,  but a prompt doesn't have to be responded to literally. 

Confessional 

Drawn outside by the April sunshine
Five women, made giddy by its warmth
Their closeness round the patio table, 
Their attention focused on the still life resting there, 
Begin to share tales from their long lives
Revealing with each stroke of their pastels, 
Paints or pencils, things kept hidden until now.
Tales of their husbands - ten in total -
How some were good,  some bad, some indifferent,
Until, emboldened by the sharing, one ventures 
"And lovers! We've been lucky enough to have had lovers!"
Shocked snorts of laughter break the spell, 
An invisible line once crossed cannot be redrawn.
Silence returns, their focus returns to their artworks,
While one woman quietly smiles, and remembers
How lucky she has been.  

© Copyright 2023. Chris Auger. All Rights Reserved.

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