Tudor Windows

This poem assignment was all about structure. Basically our teacher provided us a structure that looked like this:

If May is like (blank)

Then November is like (blank)

As now when I look out the window I see (description)

Yesterday the best thing happened (blank)

The worst thing my (father/mother) ever said to me was: (blank)

Suddenly outside the window: (metaphor)

Statement about love.

Anyway, it's November (.....)

Also, each line had to be twelve syllables.

So here's what I came up with:

Tudor Windows

If May is a stained glass window, then November

Is like the small leaded panes in a Tudor house.

As now, when I look out the window I see leaves

Strewn upon the ground, edged with frost that clearly defines

Each leaf from its brother and cousin. They are plastered

To the ground partly from the rain the night before,

And partly from the morning dew. There is a fog

Obscuring the air, I can only see enough

Of the tree to watch each individual leaf

Fall to the ground to join the carpet already

Laid out. Yesterday the best thing happened, I told

Paul I love him by tricking him into saying

It first. And then he kissed me. The worst thing Daddy

Ever said to me was that I was ungrateful.

Suddenly outside the window, the leaves are stirring,

It’s as if I’m watching the woman lazily

Drag her ladle through the pot at the soup kitchen,

I feel my stomach rumble. I’m hungry for warmth.

Love is baking challah, incorporating all

The ingredients, waiting for the dough to rise,

Braiding it together, being gentle- careful

Not to stretch it out of shape, brushing it with egg

Wash to make it shine, then baked until the color

Is mahogany. Anyway, it’s November,

And the diamond shaped glass is blurred and romantic.