<!DOCTYPE html> <!-- Template for compiled 'Autocento' documents --> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta name="generator" content="pandoc"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes"> <meta name="author" content="Case Duckworth"> <!-- more meta tags here --> <title>Exasperated | Autocento of the breakfast table</title> <!-- general styles & scripts --> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./css/common.css"> <script src="./js/lozenge.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <script src="./js/hylo.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./css/verse.css"> <script src="./js/verse.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./css/stark.css"> <script src="./js/stark.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <!--[if lt IE 9]> <script src="http://html5shim.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/html5.js"> </script> <![endif]--> <!-- <script src="js/external.js"> </script> --> </head> <body> <header> <!-- title --> <h1 class="title">Exasperated</h1> </header> <section class="thing verse"> <p>I didn’t write this sestina yesterday.<br />It’s the first time I fell behind in my task<br />and hopefully, the only time it will.<br />This means that today I must write two<br />sestinas. If I don’t write them today, I<br />will have to write two later down the line.</p> <p>Although I feel I’m slogging through each line<br />I think I’m doing better every day,<br />though maybe this is wishful thinking: I<br />showed my friend my just-completed task<br />two days ago (my God, was it two<br />entire days? I’ve no idea what I’ll</p> <p>do <a href="http://biblehub.com/2_corinthians/11-24.htm">after thirty-nine days</a>. I think I’ll<br />feel like <a href="death-zone.html">Inigo Montoya</a>, who’d been in the line<br />of revenging for so long, he didn’t know what to<br />do with the rest of his life), and he deigned<br />to be polite, but I could tell the task<br />was hard for him. He told me finally that I</p> <p>had made a noble effort, but that ultimately I<br />failed. <a href="question.html">So my question</a>: when will<br />I be a decent sestina writer? For this is my task.<br />Maybe if I just keep cranking out line after line<br />I’ll finally figure it out. Maybe one more day<br />or another week will do it, or maybe I’ll need two,</p> <p>or maybe it’ll never happen. Maybe a sestina’s too<br />involved, too much <a href="tapestry.html">weaving</a> of words too fine, and I<br />will never write a good one, even on my best day,<br />even if I employ all my skill and all my will.<br />I’m not used to writing poems with thirty-nine lines,<br />that must be the problem, must be why this task</p> <p>is Herculean. He only had to finish twelve tasks,<br />and I have one less one thousand, five hundred twenty-two,<br />and it’s nothing but complaining lines<br />about <a href="deathstrumpet.html">how hard it is to be a person</a>. I<br />am getting sick of myself with these poems, and will<br />soon be loathe to get out of bed every day.</p> <p>But I tasked myself with this, which may be the worst I<br />ever do to myself. I thought a poem NaNoWriMo would<br />be fun, would line my resume, give me something I could publish someday.</p> </section> <nav> <a class="prevlink" href="amber-alert.html"> AMBER alert </a> <a class="prevlink" href="death-zone.html"> The Death Zone </a> <a href="#" id="lozenge" title="Random page"> ◊ </a> <a class="nextlink" href="death-zone.html"> The Death Zone </a> <a class="nextlink" href="boy_bus.html"> Boy on the bus </a> </nav> </body> </html>