Poem: "As Usually Happens"
This poem is from the June 3, 2014 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from 
brushwolf. It also fills the "terrible" square on my 6-1-14 card for the
genprompt_bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette. You can read more about the Kwakwaka'wakw people online.
"As Usually Happens"
When Cook's men arrived on the shores
of what they would call Vancouver Island,
the Kwakwaka'wakw people
were reverent, peaceful,
and more than a little scared
because they thought the newcomers
were ancestors returned from the dead.
What else could explain
deathly-pale people eating bowls
of what looked like maggots
and traveling in a huge black canoe
bigger than any canoe ever built,
bigger than any tree could create?
Onto the quiet shore there came
pale walkers bearing shiny sticks,
knives sharper than any flint,
words that babbled like a winter blizzard --
and as usually happens when
the undead make first contact with humans,
terrible things commenced.
brushwolf. It also fills the "terrible" square on my 6-1-14 card for the
genprompt_bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette. You can read more about the Kwakwaka'wakw people online.
"As Usually Happens"
When Cook's men arrived on the shores
of what they would call Vancouver Island,
the Kwakwaka'wakw people
were reverent, peaceful,
and more than a little scared
because they thought the newcomers
were ancestors returned from the dead.
What else could explain
deathly-pale people eating bowls
of what looked like maggots
and traveling in a huge black canoe
bigger than any canoe ever built,
bigger than any tree could create?
Onto the quiet shore there came
pale walkers bearing shiny sticks,
knives sharper than any flint,
words that babbled like a winter blizzard --
and as usually happens when
the undead make first contact with humans,
terrible things commenced.