Um. Erโฆ
A monologue
I hear that Iโm forgetful,
and regretful of this fact
by whom
I canโt remember
or by what linguistic pact.
Undoubtedly,
my claim to fameโ
forgetful is my middle nameโ
what my other names might beโ
I canโt remember,
Um. Erโฆ
if you know
do tell me so
In my far mysterious lands
lie remnant gloves
from ungloved hands
and
โtwixt my swirling grassesโ sigh
millions of reading glasses lie,
among my most treasured findsโ
belonging to those whoโve lost their mindsโ
I hoard fragmented thoughts
frustrated ums and ers,
and huffing from all sorts,
I store odd socks
hoping for a pairโ
where is the other one?
where, O where, O whereโฝ
Keys, please
send me more
any door
will doโ
front door keys,
cupboard keys, back door keys
keys to the shedโ
keys to the carโ
are never where one thinks they are,
finding them where they shouldnโt be,
is my secret fantasy
umbrellas folded, left on the train
hundreds of people
getting wet in the rain
in my realm where I reside
I play a game of seek and hide
I live inside your memory
along that long,
long laneโฆ
you will find me there,
but please donโt ask me where.
โLesley Scoble, 2026
Audio โ Um. Er. ๐ถ
W3 Prompt #235
Dennis Johnstone is W3โs brilliant poet of the week. His prompt encouraged me to write three poems! The first two were micro-poems and failed in the brief. My third attempt is the one here published.
I found the prompt, Giving the Abstract a Voice surprisingly complex. I love the abstract, and it has certainly left me abstracted! Please click Dennisโ Prompt below to discover the guidelines.
Dennisโ prompt: Giving the Abstract a Voice
For this prompt, write a poem that gives an abstract idea a personality, a voice, and a life of its own.
Choose something we cannot physically touch: Destiny, Time, Hope, Justice, Fear, Memory, Regret, Silence, Truth or any other abstract concept that interests you.
Imagine your chosen concept as a character. What might it say? How might it behave? What does it do when nobody is watching? Does it enjoy its work? Does it have ambitions, habits, complaints, prejudices or regrets? Does it understand how its actions affect people?
You are especially encouraged to draw on your own culture, language, mythology, folklore or personal experience to give your character a distinctive identity and voice.
Your personification can be comic, tragic, sinister, tender, absurd, philosophical or anything in between. Perhaps Time is tired of being blamed for everything. Maybe Hope is stubborn. Perhaps Memory keeps things it was asked to throw away.
You might write a dramatic monologue in which the concept speaks directly to us, a conversation between two competing abstractions, a sonnet, an allegory, a satire or something completely different. These are only possibilities, not restrictions.
If youโd like to see one way of approaching the prompt, here is an example I wrote:
Acknowledgement
My thanks to Dennis for providing such an abstraction. I thoroughly enjoyed attempting his prompt.
My thanks as always, to David Bogomolny, without whom, so many poems would remain unwrit.
Last, but by no means least, my thanks to you, the reader, for spending this time with me.
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