Yaps (Pantoum Poem) | Teen Ink

Yaps (Pantoum Poem)

December 15, 2016
By Palindrome PLATINUM, Reedley, California
Palindrome PLATINUM, Reedley, California
39 articles 0 photos 30 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;If there&#039;s a reason I&#039;m still alive when so many have died, I&#039;m willing to wait for it.&quot;<br /> -Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton<br /> <br /> &quot;Crazy people don&#039;t know they&#039;re crazy. They think they&#039;re getting saner.&quot;<br /> -John Locke, Lost


My cat stalks ghosts that haunt the air

A fiersome fight for any foe

In shadows where she makes her lair

She's gone where no dog's dared to go.

 

A fiersome fight for any foe

She's got some business to attend

She's gone where no dog's dared to go

She flits around the hallway's bend.

 

She's got some business to attend

As soft as snow, as sharp as sleet

She flits around the hallway's bend

With tiny knives all on her feet.

 

As soft as snow, as sharp as sleet

In shadows where she makes her lair

With tiny knives all in her feet

My cat stalks ghosts that haunt the air.


The author's comments:

This poem is a pantoum, a type of poetry that originated in Malaysia as a short, repeating poem in the 1400s. As Western writers changed its structure, It became less important that the lines should rhyme (though mine do) and that the poem should be brief. Now, a typical Pantoum poem is made up of as many four-line stanzas as the poet sees fit, with the second and fourth lines of one stanza becoming the first and third lines of the next. This is the fist pantoum I've ever written, and it's about my beloved (and slightly demonic) cat Yaps.


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