Ode to a laminator

inspiring? original? 

I'm always so impressed by authors who, when asked where they get their ideas, say something about how ideas and characters are just always in their mind, waiting to be written about. What would it be like to have that many stories in your brain?

To be honest, I'm a little jealous. I would love to be able to write books, but I don't have a single original story in my head. I read too much, so most of my "head stories" are just combinations or retellings of other books. I would hate to start writing a book only to realize when it was done that it was unoriginal.

Ahem. Stephenie Meyer, you know you did not come up with the idea of Twilight on your own. I am 100% convinced she read Sunshine by Robin McKinley (a very good book by a very good writer), fell asleep, and dreamed that historic (?) dream that resulted in Twilight. Your book is not original, and it is badly written.

Sorry.

Anyway, because I like to read, and I like to write, but I am not a writer of stories, I have for you:


                    Ode to a Laminator

gentle heat welcoming me in to it’s inner circle

a plastic-scented blanket

warming my hands and filling my lungs

carcinogenic? maybe   

comfort smell: sending me back to the Memphis Zoo

eight years old

an elephant pressed out of wax, too hot to touch

sticky and pink   

subtle beat of the rollers

covering your posters, flash cards

soothing me in to a standing dream

a bubbling creek in the green woods

Remember: Just because you have a lot of ideas does not mean you should write a book. Write because you have something to say. Write because you like the way your hands move across the keypad. Write because a laminator inspires you.  Maybe the world would be a better place if Stephenie Meyer had stuck to poems about laminators. 

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