Heylo!
So we are at the end of another NaPoWriMo! How has it gone for you, if you’ve been writing this month? Has it been a fast or slow one for you this year? Do you feel like you got into any grooves?
My auntie bought me this very apt tee!
Here April 2021 has been a weird month because Eldest has only managed to be in school for four days of it, due to the Easter holidays running from 2nd-18th inclusive then him just getting back before his whole class having to unfortunately isolate for 10 days due to a positive Covid case being found in their midst. Today was Eldest’s last day of isolation, and we have been extremely lucky in that the test he was asked to take on his 5th day came back negative, and he hasn’t developed any symptoms in the several since. He’ll be loose just in time to have his first haircut in 14 months tomorrow 😉
The last prompt for this year’s challenges said:
write a poem in the form of a series of directions describing how a person should get to a particular place. It could be a real place, like your local park, or an imaginary or unreal place, like “the bottom of your heart,” or “where missing socks go.” Fill your poem with sensory details, and make them as wild or intimate as you like.
With my recent experiences, I couldn’t really think past homeschool-y stuff, but Hubby reminded me of the mocking directions we received from Venetians while on our first holiday together. So the second poem I wrote incorporated that, and probably meets the brief a little better than my first. It still doesn’t adhere very well, mind you!
Venturing out in the warm marbled streets, we took a wrong turn.
Eagerly tried to jump into our map, then asked a native:
“left, then right, then over the bridge…” said he.
Nice gentleman, we thought, and bumbled down more architectural alleyways.
Ice creams in hand, we stopped another person, who looked exasperated too. Where to go?
“left, then right, then over the bridge”
Could it be we’d heard that before…? A sumptuous shawl here, a pastry or two there,
Enraptured by the setting sun, but no closer to home (our hearts sinking too) we went:
“left, then right, then over the bridge”
Left our wits in the bottom of a red wine glass.
Offered too many Euros for the right to be photographed by other tourists.
Spun around, laughing at our predicament.
Trip-trapped over water, and miraculously arrived.
We’re obviously in the mood to reminisce about holidays in our house this week 😉
The first poem I wrote, as I said, shows my recent preoccupations (this is the second time Eldest’s class has had to isolate since October) but it is again an acrostic one.
In a daze, I read the notification –
Surely not again?!
Eldest’s 11 year old fingers are getting long! His thumb has already surpassed mine.
Oh the sad face as he realises
Long days in the house
Are here once more!
Tangled feelings knot
In stomachs and foreheads,
Outbursts abound.
No corner of the house is safe.
Fasten in for a bumpy ride,
Regular active stuff takes a hiatus.
Energy slumps, but there are cuddles,
Even silly giggles over the
Drudgery of comprehension sheets.
Out of posters and maths and
Microsoft BLOODY Teams, we emerge thankful.
Hubby and I have not been offered any of our vaccine doses yet, plus it is always horrible to watch either of our kids go through any kind of illness, so it has been a bit of an anxious watch-n-wait game here. It really does make you think about what contingencies you can rely on, it’s such a scary thing having to send your kid into education for their own mental health, but to also have to weigh up in the back of your mind whether they would see it as worth the risk if they did lose a parent this young by bringing Covid back with them! How well could Hubby or I coach them through that eventuality?!
Plus, with all the variants, it feels like only a matter of time til the virus starts hounding the school age population. I try to turn my head off from those paths, but 2am thoughts are not kind…
So I am choosing to just be grateful that we dodged this latest threat, and not to fixate too much on how busy the town will be when we go to the hairdressers tomorrow 😉 hopefully Eldest and I will get a walk or two this weekend and the weather will be kinder than the downpours that my app predicts.
Eldest has done really well with his homeschool work and attended the (once a day) short calls with the various teachers, even though he didn’t really want to. He has been a star despite being cooped up and I think he is secretly proud of himself. It’s a good result in a less than desirable turn of events. And that is fab.
Thank you for stopping by during my NaPoWriMo 2021 exploits. Please continue to take care of yourselves, and I will attempt to write a post about the big hair-lopping session over the next day or so!
Ciao for now, lovely readers!
Monty X
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