INSANITY

Ten Minute Pressure Cooker

Throw it on the frypan, shoot it for a three

spurred on by Burg, a challenge from Lucy Dan’s menu

dropping words like dumplings in a hot pot

pouring batter for crepes

adjectives, anecdotes, hints,

a tapestry of bullshit

like something woven and spun on ChatPTSD’s conveyer belt

select all, DELETE

start all over with some home- grown human language

now just looking for a plot

I’m on the ten-second, ten-minute shot clock

like Steph Curry flirting with a three-pointer

only I’m at work with no clapping crowd of 60K fans

except in my head, of course

I see all my readers hanging in suspense to see which word I will pull out next

will I hit the rim or throw up an air ball?

will I blow the game like I blew my life?

the elders laugh in my face and tell me I’m still young, forty- something with my whole life ahead of me, a real prince in the making

skies the limit, move over Elon, your rockets are mere toys, child’s play, as I’m making something far more powerful and lucrative —

poetry!

________________

Thanking Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她) and Michael Burg, MD (Satire Sommelier) for the brilliant prompt. I ran with Michael’s interpretation of the prompt as a race to write unedited for ten straight minutes on a timer.

Here’s Michael’s piece. If you highlight my highlight of my favorite frenzied limerick of his, I will see you in my urgent notifications box at work:

Tagging a few writers I’d personally like to see write without thinking for 10 straight minutes without an edit. Can be poetry, prose, a list, jokes, drivel, ranting, praying, procrastinating — anything. So long as you set the timer and write for 10 minutes and don’t change a word.

I found it’s good for writer’s block, if you suffer such a thing. If this challenge is not your cup of tea, roll your eyes and move onto life’s next catastrophe. If it is your cup of tea, please take a crack at it and tag me, even if you are not on this list.

Graham Lilley, Patrick Eades, Victor Cardenas, Smillew Rahcuef, Charlotte Ella King, Douglas Lim, Shereen Bingham

Thank you to the team at Promptly Written for considering this piece.

Here is another recent poem I spent a little more time on: