It’s midnight here, as it often is when I post. Tonight, I’m happy to come bearing a Missed Connections Exquisite Corpse poem. What is this, you newer friends may ask? As longer-time readers know, I periodically browse the Missed Connections section of Craigslist and pull out the subject lines that strike me as interesting for any reason. Eventually, I fit them together to create a poem. I’m essentially a harvester in the MC section, gathering the choice subject lines. Words are my jam.

There are 36 lines in the nine stanzas below. This means that 36 strangers wrote this poem, each one unknowingly contributing a line. In the case of this poem, the four-line stanzas are like little stand-alone poems, unrelated to each other.

Everyone is writer, is what this practice reveals to me time and time again… and I marvel at this.

Let’s get on with it, then! Here’s the ninth MCEC poem I’ve created, all credit going to the strangers who wrote the lines:

 

Missed Connections Exquisite Corpse, 9

 

I

You were my tech at the hospital
I was your driver
You were on your phone &
you liked my hat

 

II

Saw you on the trail at Dreamy Draw
White horse
Luminarias
Thank you for breakfast

 

III

If you remember
You were homeless and on the street
You said you liked my shirt
“Angel Fire”

 

IV

Met cute scientist at power plant
COVID testing
Two times
looking for…

 

V

Gal in line at mailbox place
Cinnamon Girl Smart and Final Friday Night
The young lady sitting in the front row of a comedy show
Runner with red eyes

 

VI

You have a dog Lola
99c Sunday poodle
Exchanged glances while you jogged
you live in the neighborhood

 

VII

Sweet smile at cruisers
You wore a kimono and cork clogs
In town visiting
Football fan at Harbor Freight

 

VIII

Vintage CD player for use
Empty house
Jaguar
Confetti

 

IX

miss you
Chevron ballerina
Driving to Los Angeles
Run away train never coming back

 

Take care, friends.