‘T’was the night before the end of time’: Exquisite Corpse poems, January 2016

Here are my current semester’s students’ Exquisite Corpse poems. See the explanation for how we created these here. See earlier samples here, here, and here.

 

I am in love with only one friend: you.

Small towns are full of pumpkins all in the front yard of the house.

Love the way you lie like the wind.

Have you ever felt like I have never felt, like a lion?

Cold air hurts my face-to-face conversations.

Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha want whatcha really really diamonds.

Women are men except when Tyler Perry get(s) annoying.

The girl loves to be or not to be the change I need to get home by bus.

The fat whale with a chimney blowhole is what you are.

Illinois is a joke like the kid next to buy many drugs for my baby brother.

Shame on you for thinking of my mom and dad, so I car-crashed into the side of an apple pie.

All the plants were stinky like father, like son.

Who are you talking to, the girl next to fish in the ocean of dead whales?

With respect, he shot her and him.

To the bank we went, to rob it.

What did you do to the mall with my little pony farts?

Yes, she said, for a date at the bakery in town.

Anytime he sang, he broke the mirror because she is wrong for you.

Daddy never came home, for I tell you nothing was the same, but I shot him.

He was a dark man who killed civil society under the sea, under the spider.

The spider crawled down slowly, took a breath[e], and the boy ran home.

Go tell it on the end to that story.

Bad times for saddle-makers since I was sleeping with liberty and justice for the old lady’s dog.

Hobby Lobby is a rockin’ place to go when it’s lit up nightly.

During the night, we stared at people.

Scared little children yelling at the trees softly.

Softly and quietly, he walked the dog sideways.

Angelina said mean stuff to her stepmother because I’m so fancy.

I’m so fancy; you are the kindest person.

The rain cries to the moon tonight.

Shouting at the sky rudely interrupted the class.

They duel with mice that have no sense of direction.

Hell is where they go, saying he will change, wrong or right, it doesn’t matter.

Matter doesn’t affect the brain that searches for answers.

My pet cactus Tim has a big forehead.

You never know when I’ll eat bananas.

People like to do bad things in rentals.

Miley Cyrus, she makes me feel like I’m a baby, it’s very cold outside.

T’was the night before the end of time.

Time heals all, and snow flakes fall freely.

Can’t go to work, so I opened that poem, but I don’t know who likes you.

Why would you say whatever you want to this day? You’re weird.

Strange children live under my leg.

My grandma makes cookies with or without you.

I’m so afraid that bird just landed on the top of her mom.

You can’t believe the dinosaurs like to eat people.

Friends don’t murder each other.

Are you a laughable kitten in my hand?

Rhyme time for the apples of your eyes.

Stupid homework-giving teachers wrote your legacy on paper.

You can shut up to the top of the small birds.

I can’t wait to go to the bathroom spiders on my face.

Can you please rush into the great beyond?

Humans are the bane of my inner self-image.

He told me he brings joy to the weird kid.

Scary like the girls from that one IHOP down the road he drove through.

Now (or how) you decide what you can’t always say.

No two things are the moose.

The same type of songs describe the meaning of life.

But today, I will not today, not tomorrow, never fathom the bottom depths of the fiery Hell.

Small dogs are bait, for only two can tango.

With him I felt good, so that he became the love of my shoes and my dress.

Little moose in my pizza.

The man stood. Still, he fell off. The dog ran after him.

Dessert pizza is kinda disgusting between the good.

It was black shoes, white hat, with my favorite person in time.

“Luke Skywalker is my son” is my cat’s name.

So colorful and funny at the bus stop, and she wanted more than God said.

The block-quoted section below is the entirety of one paper passed around the class. A few lines were skipped, but the remainder felt like it shared a mood.

In the light,

she never wanted to keep going fast.

In the night, he (thought), why are you a weirdo?

A weirdo was singing loud.

Today is quite dark,

and he wasn’t home today.

Today is really boring,

so freaking bright and cold.

Cold makes me chilly- hot.  … [1 line skipped]

I don’t know what teen drinking is.

Very hairy Mary said snow is super freakin’ cold.

Cold heart sucks, but whatever you want, I don’t.

Play with a dog. … [skipped 8 lines]

Without her, I’m falling.  [skipped 2 lines]

All about my mother told me to hurt your bestie.

You look like grass.

Weird children should go to make a cake with time.

Everything will fall from the top stair. [skipped 3 lines]

When you see me — and my friends are a cute couple — so we took a trip in our favorite rocket ship in space.

Yeah.