Looking for Trouble Again

Campus life is played out in front of me. Youth is wont to believe that they are immortal and impervious to disaster. But this is not a rant about people not wearing masks. Instead it is a little observation. I’ve had the opportunity to eavesdrop on a conversation as I was queued up to enter the building. I’m always amazed by the lack of decorum as the students discuss the most intimate details of their lives. I probably shouldn’t be as they post their entire lives on FB/Instagram/Snapchat/TicToc. A pretty girl was was showing her friend a nasty looking bruise on her arm while explaining that it was from “some rando guy” that had bought her some drinks and then thought she owed him. Her friend was sympathetic and just a little surprised that she 1. went to a bar and 2. let a strange dude buy her booze. The friend tried not to lecture her but in the course of her description of the events did make some valid points. I hope her friend’s concerns make an impression and that she swears off the rum. The next time she might not get so lucky…

A spot the size of a big thumb
The skin is raised and slightly numb
The result of a pushy man
He grabbed me to pull to his van, I felt so dumb

A firm grip I couldn’t refuse
My arm showed clearly the dark bruise
To the bathroom I begged to go
Out the back I flew like a crow, drunk on cheap booze

The dark circle reminds me how
A few drinks of rum can allow
Complete destruction of my plan
No more drinking Captain Morgan, I do avow

The above is a Florette, a poetry form developed by Jan Turner. It consists of a minimum of 2 four line stanzas. Each stanza has 4 lines with a syllable count of 8/8/8/12 and a rhyme scheme of a/a/b/a where the 8th syllable of the 4th line is an internal rhyme with the 3rd line. Don’t be confused. Just look at the poem.