Our World and Balance

Alliteration, consonance and assonance are often new concepts to writers. Here are two pieces from 20+ years ago that I share to get students thinking about telling their opinion about an event or object using some of these literary devices. (Yes, I was a typical teen who thought the world would go to hell in a handbasket before I ever reached 21 if the adults kept running things as they had been...so this work shows that sentiment.)

Our World

Ticking Time, Changing Children;
People are purposefully paranoid through
Wild war. Stealing Secrets.
Painfully persecuted people
clicking clocks. Terrified Teens
spinning in Circular Synchronicity.
Looking lifeless, Feeling Frightened –
searching for a silent sanity.
Prostitutes prosecuting possible
plagiaristic paralegals!
And SUDDENLY a scream is
Squealing through their simple minds,
then….
THEN….


nothing.
********************

Balance

Tossing, turning, twisting, twirling –
My mind spins a bit more each day.

Problems, people politics ---
Never go away.

Singing, dancing, smiling --
Learning to play.

Ability to do so is a gift,
Some they say.

Being able to cope is a feat
of present and past.

No matter,
In this world,
If you are first ---


Or last.

(Written as Melissa A. Bentley, 1986.)