Poem – A Smile and a Word

Have I ever mentioned how much I love Pinterest? It has a wealth of helpful and amazing content on it, especially writerly related things. I have a whole board for writing, and I’ve collected a large amount of writing prompts on it. I love taking a prompt and then writing a poem based off of it, and so this week’s featured poem is one of those poems! Here is the prompt I chose:

And after some tweaking and writing, here is what I came up with:

 

He had a smile made for war

And the words that started it

Cocky and confident

Ready to face whatever

Life sent

Danger

Death

He was ready

 

Inflammatory

His words landed like hot sparks

On gunpowder

Igniting and lighting

Yet another dispute

 

What was going on inside his mind?

No one knew

He was like a safe

Locked tightly behind that smile

That smile that shifted

like shadows

Secretive

Taunting

Guarded

 

One thing was for sure

The words

Dammed up behind that

Impenetrable smile

Were ready

To start a war

 

And when the dam broke

A fire was ignited

As words poured out

Like lighted fire brands

Tearing down defences

Like soldiers swarming

Over the enemy castle’s walls

 

Impassioned speech after speech

He built arguments

And they raged higher and higher

Like wildfire

Unquenched and unstoppable

The words towered higher and higher

Unable to be scaled

Like a funeral pyre

They burned every last bridge

There was no going back

 

The fire smouldered and smoked

And rushed and roared

His words kept coming

Like a blazing torrent

More and more and more

 

His smile flashed

Dangerous

Smashing all defences

Relentless

Until at last

The war began