The Writers Studio – Level 2b, Assignment #5 October 20, 2008
Preamble: 1st person, past tense. Older narrator looking back with confidence. Pick specific object from past and describe it. In process revealing how narrator feels about a significant relationship or time. Feeling is not from what is told but shown. Tone: calm, straightforward (hmmm, anger?), Mood: melancholy.
robot
Preserved under living layers of newer
lives. Excavated from my closet. Your
robot sits crouched. From a Christmas
not long ago. So long ago. I played with it
twice. Once to scare your cat. You
never knew me.
Christmas cookies. Family
introductions and dinners. Snow
covered mornings. And the robot. The
extra thoughtfulness of batteries. A
light lit his way. A light he never
shared. Next to him, that leather-bound
book for my poems. Pristine but for
the dedication. Its innocent and
hopeful pages. I couldn’t betray them.
A pack of golf balls for my then new
hobby. Unopened. All piled up. Piled
over.
Do not touch.
Do not look.
Do not remember.
Once sacred area. A temple of another
god. Excavated to make way for wine.
Carefully moved to the donation pile.
Robot cradled. Book transferred
without scratching its elegant and
fragile cover. I hope you don’t mind if
I keep the golf balls. I think they will
go 500 yards.
