A Blessing or a Curse? #NaPoWriMo

_{^{Photo by Steph Huth on Pexels.com}}

Because you can paint like a wizard
but it doesn’t pay for toffee
so you end up working in HR
then quite annoyingly
become really good at HR.

Because you can secretly sing
a pitch perfect Nessun Dorma in your own key
but are crushed by shyness
and can barely say hello to a boy you like.

Because you are good at countless things –
even more on first attempt at trying another –
then are torn between all the loves
and cannot choose the one
that will make your fortune.

Because you have every trapping of wealth imaginable
and no friends or lover to share it with
and even if you did, how would you ever know
that they were not just there
for the hors d’oeuvres and champagne
a ride in your new yacht
or have secret designs
to make you fund their new life?

Because you discover the cure for cancer
but the world ends
because of another rampant disease
or because a bullyboy dictator
presses the red button.

Because you wish to be a famous actor
but the only time you make it on TV
is as a gun-wielding bank robber
in a Crimewatch documentary.

Because you want to travel the world
and have a job that occasionally allows you to
but have a terrible sense of direction
so end up in random locations
and then spend the whole day
trying to become unlost
during which time
you find yourself.

_{^{© N Nazir 2022}}

*I might have gone a bit left field with the prompt.

*only the odd one of these is true in my case. The last stanza is pretty much on the nose.

NaPoWriMo Prompt: And here’s our prompt (optional, as always). In certain versions of the classic fairytale Sleeping Beauty, various fairies or witches are invited to a princess’s christening, and bring her gifts. One fairy/witch, however, is not invited, and in revenge for the insult, lays a curse on the princess. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem in which you muse on the gifts you received at birth — whether they are actual presents, like a teddy bear, or talents – like a good singing voice – or circumstances – like a kind older brother, as well as a “curse” you’ve lived with (your grandmother’s insistence on giving you a new and completely creepy porcelain doll for every birthday, a bad singing voice, etc.). I hope you find this to be an inspiring avenue for poetic and self-exploration.

For more information or to take part, please visit www.napowrimo.net