2010 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 21

(Quick update:Since the Poetic Asides blog did not give me
permission to post my prompt and poem earlier today--it was past midnight
here at the time--I posted the prompt and poem on my personal blog, which is usually more
reliable anyway. Hopefully, this attempt to post again to Poetic Asides after getting some
much-needed sleep will work.)

Well, I just returned from my 18-hour (actually, just slightly less than
18-hour) road trip to pick up my two boys in Ohio, and I've already discovered
that the blog decided to get all psycho and erase comments from several recent
posts. This seems to happen at least once each PAD challenge, though this one
had been so smooth that I'd forgotten about it. Oh well. I guess that's what
happens when I leave my blog alone for a whole 18-hour stretch.

Since it's past midnight here and I'm tired (and hoping to sleep in a little
in the morning), I'm going to go ahead and post Day 21's prompt and poem a
little early. And I see that I don't need anyone's permission, because...

The prompt for today is to write a permission poem. You don't need my (or
anyone else's) permission to write your poem today, but it should somehow
involve the concept of giving, refusing, asking, etc. permission.

Here's my attempt:

"The grave majority"

Eventually, we fear ourselves most.
With nothing better to do than listen
to nuts drop from these trees, we're entertained
by the swift movements of squirrels and birds
warning them from above. A man walks by
with an empty bag and laughs to himself.
Bikers pedal past without comment. We
listen as their gears shift purposefully.
Like squirrels and birds darting from this branch
to the next, the bikers change their colors
in the sun. We wait for them to join us.
In time, we will surely collect them all.

*****

Follow me on Twitter @robertleebrewer

(Use the #poettalk hashtag on Twitter to tweet poetic throughout the week and
the #novpad hashtag to update your progress on this specific challenge.)

*****

Time for me to get some sleep! Good morning, good night!