Time is moving so quickly
There is no time to think
Let alone trying to write
Something fine for a site
But I hope you’ll be glad
To know at least I have
Found some time to sleep

I found an old poem that hadn’t quite worked for me, but which – fortuitously – had lines almost the same number of characters. The process tightened it up in interesting ways. I included spaces, to give a patter of alternate lines: 26/23 repeated all the way down.

Anniversary
(to the ghost of my second husband)

It’s June 11. On this date
in 1966 you married me.
It was your idea. I wanted
to live outside the law
had fulfilled the fantasy
of the Cinderella day,
knew how quickly all that
collapsed – didn’t need
a repeat. But you’d never
been married; thrilled,
wanted public celebration.
And your mother told me
how she was making – never
questioning it – a new
hat for her son’s wedding.
At that point, I caved.

I enjoyed the instruction.

I even had fun with the poem…

It’s just thought it would be funny to focus on the counting…
I wrote it in notepad, where all characters are drawn the smae width.
In that format, it is visually obvious that every lint is exactly the same length,
except thelast which is longer…

You’re the one who was complaining that the posts weren’t instructional enough.

Here is my humble submission

Protest.

Every jot and tiddle,
every letter or dash,
each mark of punctua-
tion, must be counted
and weighed to see if
it the budget allows.
Damn! I’m not a poet:
I’m a blooming accountant!