April PAD Challenge: Day 18

After today’s poem, we’ll be 60% of the way through this challenge. Woo-hoo! For today’s prompt, I want you to write a poem with an interaction of some sort. The…

After today's poem, we'll be 60% of the way through this challenge. Woo-hoo!

For today's prompt, I want you to write a poem with an interaction of some sort. The interaction does NOT have to be between people, though it can. For instance, you could write about the interaction between a bee and a flower; or an owl and a field mouse. Or just write about a traffic cop getting into an argument with a speeder. Just as long as there is some sort of interaction going on.

Here's my attempt for the day:

"Only Gets Worse"

I watch the boys run around
the new playground. Another
father approaches me and
says, "Kids," chuckling to himself.
I don't know how to respond,
so I don't. "Yeah, my little
one--that girl in the green
dress--she's a handful for
sure." I never understand
why some people feel the need
to talk about nothing when
there's nothing to talk about.
He exhales a long sigh,
"Yeah, her mother's a bitch."
He waves gnats away from
his face with his hand. "How
long you been married?" He
apparently hasn't noticed I haven't
been communicating, and he obviously
doesn't care, because he says,
"It only gets worse," and
then adds, "It only gets worse."
He waves away some more gnats,
takes his leave of me, and
makes his way to a single mom
on the other side of the play
area. She watches him approach,
clutches at her purse, and
smiles nervously when he laughs.

Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.