NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 1 Going after Cacciato

Day one of the NaPoWriMo 2024 event assigns me to write, without consulting the book, a poem that recounts the plot, or some portion of the plot, of a novel that I remember having liked but a book that I haven’t read in a long time. Define a “long time.” Am I supposed to remember plots well enough to recount them? Enough of my whining. No cheese, please.

I decided on Going After Cacciato by Tim O’Brien. I’ve done this in the past, particularly with O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. But as wonderful as that book is, it is a collection of connected stories with literary or psychological plots.

Pass the pipe, Paul.
He is there! We know!
You saw him say goodbye.

Follow his fantasy
to get out of this place,
miracle of miracles, as we

dream on, dream on, dream
ourselves away. Away to
gay Paree as all can see.

As the white rabbit said,
march on and find adventures
and stories, because

you do not have to be
smart to be happy,
you just should be in Paris.

Look both ways as you go after your dreams.
Mind the gaps because that is where dreams morph into gods.

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