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.)
