An Epic Story (2022 NaPoWriMo #26)

With a little digging I found another series of poetry prompts being provided by NaPoWriMo – 30 Poems in 30 Days. I’m starting in the middle and I’ll see how it goes as to whether I work to catch-up with the prior prompts or just carry on forward.

Prompt 26

Write a poem that contains an ‘epic simile’.

NaPoWriMo.net

I feel like I might have accidentally already done this prompt with my prior post “Epic Words”, but I’ll have another go at it.

An Epic Story

He stands stiff like a soldier at the emperor’s palace gate
On a bitter cold day,
Slightly bent at the waist to balance against a wind,
A wind so cold and strong it’s like a thousand polar giants are trying to blow out the glowing lanterns on the palace’s gate as if they are birthday cake candles.

He is impossibly long. Not long in absolute length, but long for him. Like a child that just went through a sudden growth spurt and is suddenly awkwardly tall and unsure what to do with their new body.

He is pale, so pale. Almost invisible. Translucent like a ghost that’s just not seen itself in a mirror. Perhaps, as pale as that soldier at the end of his frigid shift before finding the fire’s warmth. So pale that I didn’t see you coming – like an expert ninja hiding in plain sight.

Yet this morning you suddenly appeared. Right there. Once seen, impossible to ignore. Like Waldo in one of those search and seek books. But this Waldo was sitting right upon my nose waving at me. So I took a pair of tweezers and plucked him like the weird hair that he was.

Be well,

Monty

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