Prompt: write a pantun, a traditional Malay form. It consists of rhymed quatrains (abab), with 8-12 syllables per line. The first two lines of each quatrain aren’t meant to have a formal, logical link to the second two lines, although the two halves of each quatrain are supposed to have an imaginative or imagistic connection.

 

Boston Marathon

Running on the final mile

She felt the sweet pain of its ending.

Thunder dust from walls and tile;

Exploded body’s blood descending.

 

Carol McMillan

April 15, 2013