Hello, faithful funnies fanatics! It is I, washed-up funnies editor Greta Lapp Klassen, just trying to keep my foot in the door back here on the best page of the Record. It’s good to be home.

This week, I offer you an interactive challenge, a literary game, if you will, inspired by the poetry of Rupi Kaur. I’m sure you’ve heard of her – the poet who writes short, punchy poems and pairs them with little sketches? That’s the one. Anyways, I have written three poems imitating her style, and the rest of the poems are real. All you have to do is guess which ones are mine and which ones are Rupi’s! Easy enough, right? Right. Good luck!

1. 

the eggshells I painstakingly

avoided, you

sought them out, starved for

conflict, the echo

of crunching shards covered in yolk

on my knees, I picked up the

remnants, desperate

to rebuilt this shattered

love, my

shattered heart

 

2.

it was as though

someone had slid ice cubes

down the back of my shirt

 

3.

my leaden eyelids grumble and groan

tiny dark curtains drag me back under

and I dream of mornings filled with light and carbonated laughter and

I roll over again, my face on the pillow, begging the sleep to

caress my mind

as I remember when

 

4.

a field

of grass

crickets

chirping

the sun

on your face

our fingers

my hand, your hand

holding on

 

5.

i do not need the kind of love

that is draining

i want someone

who energizes me

 

6.

if you are broken

and they have left you

do not question

whether you were

enough

the problem was

that you were so enough

they were not able to carry it

 

Answer key: 1: Greta, 2: Rupi, 3: Greta, 4: Greta, 5: Rupi, 6: Rupi

(The answers were incorrectly switched in the printed edition of The Record.)