Writing prompt – responding to a piece of art.

How funny,

to see the flowers hanging from the ceiling,

the sun spread out
like a carpet of red and yellow swirls,

scattered with little balls of fluff.

Someone really ought to hoover those up.

And when did ants grow wings
and take to nesting in trees,

those little homes
that dangle from muddy branches,

scattered with red and orange confetti?

How strange the world looks
from up here,

as I sit quietly
upon my perch,

licking my wings.

– Notes from Dracula

I went in search of a writing prompt to inspire a poem, and found one that simply said: respond to a piece of art.

I looked up.

Hanging from my living room wall is an artwork of a bat, dangling upside down. And suddenly, so was the world.

I thought it would be fun to turn everything on its head for this poem, to see the familiar world from a bat’s perspective, where flowers hang from ceilings, ants have grown wings, and everything looks a little strange.

So here it is: Notes from Dracula.