NaPoWriMo Day 17: Tea for typewriter

Hi, I’m doing NaPoWriMo on napowrimo.net. The challenge is to write a poem a day in April. 

For Day 17, I wrote about a typewriter, something not many of us use any more. The one I used to have was heavy and very stiff. It took all my strength to type on it and it killed my fingers!! That might sound familiar!

This is the prompt for the April 17 poem:

Our prompt for the day (optional, as always), asks you to move backwards in time away from such modern contrivances as podcasts. Today, I challenge you to write a poem that features forgotten technology. Maybe it’s a VCR or a rotary phone. A cassette player or even a radio.

Tea for typewriter

It’s retro and cool, they say,

Typing poems on a typewriter.

But it’s seen better days,

This machine with metal teeth

Seeking to knacker my fingers

With every key I punch down.

Pressing down is the equivalent

Of a pelvic lunge across the floor.

One nail down, nine to go.

I feel like a failed bodybuilder,

Developing only my fingular muscles.

Is fingular a word? How singular!

So precise in its imprecision.

The letters make little recesses

In my pale pink writing paper,

Like miniature fingerprints,

Each stamp individual to the rest,

Each letter with its own personality.

The I is far too egotistical, I fear,

And the O loves to show its surprise,

The K likes to kick out now and then,

And the D seems to have a double.

The F has seen better days; a shame

As my battered fingers desire an F word.

Phew, my retro mission is almost over,

My too-long letter almost complete...

But no! An error in the penultimate line!

Here comes my Tippex hero to the rescue,

The lid wedged stuck, but it’ll have to do.

I’ll resist a sniff for old time’s sake,

And stampede my fingers to the finish.

Copyright Vickie Johnstone, April 17, 2020