(4) My First Lipstick

Lastly, we were given an assignment. Margo told us to write a poem for the next session. We were free to choose the theme and the form of the poem; yet, she equipped us with the guideline in a handout entitled "Possible Writing Ideas." I believe all the participants of the workshop had little sleep that night struggling with words to create a short poem. We were supposed to write and rewrite at least three times to finish one poem. There was not much room for sentiment. I decided to revisit a scene of my juvenile days in my poem. Time rediscovered. Unless I tried to write this, I must have forgotten the moemnt for ever. Poetry workshop let me make a short trip to the past of my life. I discovered again that poetry is a vhecle for TIME.

My First Lipstick

It was in May
I was eighteen

Watching me
In a large mirror

A lipstick in one hand
brand new and metal cold

I knew I would meet the student
in the underground lab of the redbrick building

My heart leaped up
Without beholding a rainbow

My fingers trembled
When I put on the pale pink lipstick

How I wished I had no pimples
My skin was like the moon with craters

No chance for me to win his heart
Galaxy of girls were swarming in the campus

I asked myself
Do I really need the make-up?
Someone in the mirror said Yes Indeed

It was in May
I was eighteen
Holding the lipstick to make me a woman.

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When I read this piece, I cannot help blushing and grinning. How far have I come since the day of my firs lipstick? I even foresee that there will be the last one of my life. The poem, as it is, with little worth to anyone else but myself, is an evergreen picture. I attach it in the memory of my clumsy youth. The workshop was over with a lot of sharing of each other's poems. We all came back to naive students in the session, playing with words and time-tripping to the past and the future on the vheicle called poetry. I discovered the joy of writing again.

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