NaPoWriMo: And So It Begins

It's March 31st and over at NaPoWriMo.net they have posted an "extra" prompt! Yay!

The prompt is to look at this poem by Bernadette Mayer and write a poem inspired by it that begins with the line, "I guess its too late to live [somewhere]." As I am only 22 (and 6 months, as of yesterday), I don't feel like it is too late for me to live anywhere. The world is my potential house. So instead I am writing a poem that begins with the line, "I guess its too late to be a mascot."

There are two reasons this line came to mind: the first is that I started watching Hulu's series, "Behind the Mask" (I thought it'd be dumb, but it's so good; I watched an entire season in one night!) and secondly, there have been occasions where I was at a football game and I saw the mascot and it just looked like a whole lot of fun. Other first lines I <briefly> considered were: "I guess its too late to be a Strutter" and "I guess its too late to be a creative writing minor." Without further ado, here is my poem!

I guess its too late to be a mascot
To don the mask
And rile up the fans
To be beloved by everyone
I guess its too late to be Boko the Bobcat
To play with a ball of string
To take pictures with little kids and college students
To do anything I want, anonymously.
I guess its too late for that to be me.
But maybe another mask is the last thing I need.
We all wear masks every day
We decide who we want people to see
I play a part in this world
Each day I am cast and directed by me
We only let people know parts of ourselves
We only let certain people know anything at all
Wearing our masks to keep others away.
Maybe another mask is the last thing I need.
I bet its hard to see out of
And I bet it gets really hot in there
And I bet that suit really smells.
Maybe I don't wanna be a mascot at all.
But maybe we all need to be the mascot of our inner, true selves
Unafraid of what other people will think
Doing whatever it is that we want to do
Even if to others it seems as silly
As playing with a ball of string.
Maybe we each need to don our own cartoonish, giant head
And show the world who we really are
And if mascots are any indication,
The world will love us for who we truly are
The crowds will cheer for us
Every time we come out into the stadiums and playing fields of life.





Tomorrow officially begins NaPoWriMo, so assuming that everything goes well, I will be back with another poem!

See ya tomorrow!

Sharon