74 . WELCOME BACK, LITTLE SONGBIRD Newly back from his trip south, a rookie bluebird salutes spring from a branch high  on the oak,  soft, low-pitched  chir-wi, chir-wi. sung  with simple joy,  cheerily, cheer up, cheer up... *comments welcome

  73. WITH A SURCINGLE BELT Summer after senior year, no more babysitting! First real job, part-time at The Villager, Har Mar Mall. Classic 1960s boutique shop, sold preppy A-line skirts, Oxford button-down blouses, blazers, bermuda shorts. Madras plaid mania, guaranteed to bleed. First paycheck bought me an avocado green shirtwaist dress with a woven surcingle belt: heavy cotton webbing, leather tabs, brassy gold buckle. Shining moment, red-letter day!

PROMPT:  Write a lucky poem. Or a poem about bad luck. Or luck in general. I've never been good at rhyming poems. Gotta start sometime. 72. OUT OF LUCK As luck would have it, missed the bus what to do, quite a fuss. As luck would have it, rain poured down umbrella left way uptown. As luck would have it, lost her purse, things had gone bad to worse. As luck would have it, ran into Harry so instead they took the ferry. As luck would have it, got there late, worked through lunch, luckless fate. As luck would have it, there went Carrie taking lunch break with new friend Harry. As luck would have it, throbbing head, hurried home and straight to bed.

This is my first attempt at a FOUND POEM. I wrote this 2 weeks ago. We got about a foot of snow. Last weekend, we had temps in the 70s, which melted the snow FAST. 71. WINTER STORM WATCH for Minnesota this weekend, March 14-15, 2026: a major blizzard expected directly impacting Twin Cities, potentially historic snow, [80-100% chance of 20+ inches], intense snowfall, wet and heavy, tree limb damage and possible power outages, hazardous winds, little to no visibility, blizzard-like whiteouts, eventually reaching a low in single digits Monday morning. Department of Transportation urges caution as many roads may be impassable. Expect road closures and flight cancellations. Make sure your gas tank is full. *comments welcome  

Write a cleave poem: A cleave poem is three poems in one. According to the creator of the form, Dr. Phuoc-Tan Diep: “In its most basic form it is three poems: two parallel ‘vertical’ poems (left and right)…[with] a third ‘horizontal’ poem being the fusion of the vertical poems read together.” 70. IN A TEMPER All day it brews at a slow simmer  burning in the pit of her stomach Bubbles of anger rise to the surface  gnawing at her; ready to burst Rage claims her mind  sapping her energy, growing stronger Her bad mood blazes  furious words explode like pieces of an asteroid  fragmenting in a perfect March sky. *comments welcome

69. HER CLOSET She remembers a scarf bright as summer, clatter of wire hangers, her mother standing in front of the closet wearing a white slip, deep grooves cut into her shoulders from her bra straps. On a shelf her black leather jewelry box with rows of clip-on earrings resting on fancy red velvet, the scent of Evyan's  White Shoulders, infusing the air. Her mother reaches  for a dress, dark blue green  crepe sprinkled with  tiny bursts of coral. Sixty years have passed since that day; this time she reaches into her mother’s closet  alone.

68. INTO THE SILENCE Darkness crept in,  heavy and suffocating. She listened to the crickets and katydids, nighttime soundtrack, listened to the silence, listened to her heart. The noises got fainter and fainter until she no longer heard them at all. And even if one broke into the silence, she no longer cared. *comments welcome