my first demi-sonnet
                —with thanks to erin murphy for inventing the form
                     and to alex dawson for my opening line

the monster isn’t under my bed
isn’t behind the shower curtain in the downstairs bath
isn’t in the closet at my back as i sit at my desk.
i looked.
the monster is the story i tell myself 
when given a prompt in class with the offer
of 12 minutes to begin a poem just now:
can’t. not enough time. no ideas.   how?

—dotty seiter

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Notes about poem and art:
• “my first demi-sonnet” is just that. I didn’t become acquainted with demi-sonnets until a few weeks ago. Guidelines: exactly 7 lines in length; no set meter or syllable count; full or slant rhyme encouraged for ending; and a compact, pithy insight or observation that gestures toward a much larger, resonant theme. I had fun with this!
• I Take Shape embodies two backstories—1. It is the first new piece I created after breaking free of being in the painful grip of having lost my spunk for playing freely and experimenting recently. 2. Ironically, getting an image of this piece from sketchbook to blog involved literal HOURS of dealing with printer/scanner software and other computer-related nonsense that would not let me out of its grip. In the end—ta da!—I broke free of those shackles also.