Ode to my Bobble

Below is the poem I wrote as part of our writing exercise at last Thursday’s Teen Writing Club meeting, proof that you really can make anything the subject matter of your writing:

Warning to Those Who Wish to Remain Unnoticed

How did the girl who

just wanted to go through

life unnoticed end up

with a wheezing water bottle?

I shall tell you the story.

The wheezing water bottle came

from a litter of three:

Blue, blue, pink.

Sitting around the living room

Christmas Eve—first the pink, then the blue, and then—

then the final blue.

It was mine.

It lay there amongst tissue paper,

Clear, innocuous, and most-of-all—

Silent.

Its name is Bobble, and it likes to be

washed in warm water. The

filter likes to be boiled, so I boil it

frequently (because I drop it frequently).

And because it filters

water as you drink, I thought,

Aha! I can bring this ALL the places

where the fact that the water is safe to drink

is belied by how yucky it tastes.

Cases in point:

The library

My parents’ house

My boyfriend’s apartment

But then, this:

The Bobble is not so silent after all.

You take a drink, you put it down

It gasps, wheezes like Darth Vader.

Heads turn.

Children laugh.

Boyfriend raises an eyebrow.

Library patrons hiss, “Shhhhhhhh!!”

I can never be the girl who blends into the woodwork again.

Thanks a lot, Bobble.