NaPoWriMo: 30 poems in 30 days (day 23)

Day 23 prompt: write a poem about a letter of the alphabet or letters forming a short word.


Words of Woe

You came to save us from distress,
simple, yet smart, and set in Morse code:
dot dot dot  dash dash dash  dot dot dot,
signaled in sight, sound, or touch.

S O S, an ambigram palindrome with
a beat in songs by Abba, Avicii,
and Rihanna with a telegraphic
message of mayday, mayday, m’aidez.

From Germany to boy scout merit badges
to beach branches and mirrored flashes,
your footprints in the snow, simple,
unmistakable, unambiguous.

A call . . .  for help – – – to be heard . . .
around the world.
Sometimes something lifesaving,
too often, distressfully not. S O S.


Look both ways for signs and signals of distress.
Mind the gaps for the meaning of space and time.

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