April 29, 2010

NaPoWriMo #29

Marimba-Playing Robots

Metal slaps
in your ears closing in,
an army of feet
and sound.
Garage-band melody
thumps its way outside
and the air trembles
with the shake.
Robots march,
march,
wide-open, wide-awake,
feet stomp along.
Marimbas left in the dust,
robot hands slapping
robot quadriceps,
robot feet displacing
earthy sand.

*****
The prompt over at ReadWritePoem was to use headlines from news sources, and I was on the LA Times blog, where there was a headline that included the words 'marimba-playing robots.' Come on...you couldn't honestly expect me to leave that delicious phrase lying around. This poem was hard, though -- way harder than I expected, but I just tried to focus on that throbbing beat and the sound of robots moving, since I'm not too much of an expert on marimbas. I will admit that I didn't know what a marimba looked like until today.

And on the subject of good news, tomorrow is the last day of NPWM -- and April! Can you believe it?!

5 comments:

Julia said...

The first thing I thought of when I heard that was the iPhone ringtone. And GarageBand, too. Could it be that you've drawn inspiration from your devices too? :)

I love the first stanza, anyhow.

Jessie Carty said...

and now i must google marimba :)

Maya Ganesan said...

@Inkgirl: Actually, I don't think so, considering that I've never played GarageBand, and, although my dad does have an iPhone, I really dislike the ringtone. But it's a cool suggestion!

Anonymous said...

Wow...so I just stumbled upon your blog and I'm very impressed and very jealous of your talent. I went to your website after I was done reading this and was totally blown away by what you've accomplished. I'm totally following you now. (:

Maya Ganesan said...

@Cortney: Thank you! That might just be one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me :)