Serena Malcolm

Let’s take a trip down memory lane,
Yeah, let’s do 2003 again,
Cheesecake in Wimbledon Pizza Hut,
While The Peas asked, “Where is the love?”
Remember where we THOUGHT love lived?
In bumping uglies with some butters kids?
Except that guy from Notting Hill,
Hey, Jo-Jo aren’t you with him still?
Po Na Na for my 21st birthday party,
That pimps and hoes night was just plain naughty,
Crackpots smoking crack and pot,
While we sunk Wray & Nephew shots,
The night Kimmy did something rather rude,
In the upstairs bar with that random dude,
But even in that year-long drinking spree,
I somehow earned my first degree,
Hey, I found some snaps the other day,
The ones I thought I’d thrown away,
The one where Zee kinda looked like death,
And the one where I sort of showed my breasts,
Man, the year Saddam was finally snared,
We partied like we NEVER cared,
Inhibitions low and adventures high,
We lived, we lost, we laughed, we cried,
Bruce said life was “B-E-A-utiful”,
But we said “heavy” (meaning cool),
The utter MADNESS we unfurled,
Goddamn! I fucking LOVE you girls!

This poem was written for NaPoWriMo. Today’s challenge was to write a New York School. This type of poem has 23 ‘rules’ and the idea is to include as many as possible. Here is the list:

1. at least one addressee (to which you may or may not wish to dedicate your poem)
2. use of specific place names and dates (time, day, month, year)–especially the names of places in and around New York City
3. prolific use of proper names
4. at least one reminiscence, aside, digression, or anecdote
5. one or more quotations, especially from things people have said in conversation or through the media
6. a moment where you call into question at least one thing you have said or proposed throughout your poem so far
7. something that sounds amazing even if it doesn’t make any sense to you
8. pop cultural references
9. consumer goods/services
10. mention of natural phenomena (in which natural phenomena do not appear ‘natural’)
11. slang/colloquialism/vernacular/the word “fuck”
12. at least one celebrity
13. at least one question directed at the addressee/imagined reader
14. reference to sex or use of sexual innuendo
15. the words “life” and “death”
16. at least one exclamation/declaration of love
17. references to fine art, theater, music, or film
18. mention of genitals and body parts
19. food items
20. drug references (legal or illegal)
21. gossip
22. mention of sleep or dreaming
23. use of ironic overtones