The BOP

I took a poetry class a couple years ago, and we had to jump through all sorts of hoops (thanks to Curtis Crisler), and write in myriad styles. This poem style is called the BOP, and the main premise is that you have to use a song lyric for the refrain. I obviously wrote about the insanity of life, and chose Paolo Nutini's song entitled 'Last Request'. P.S. I never said I was good at poetry!


Heaving deep breath before I dunk my head and dive
Back under icy academic waters and steals my breath.
Write an article, edit this, run that, design page 1.
Perform CPR, I need and EKG – Jessie where are you?
Run! From the uneasy waking moment, diving
Back under water. Time to steal a breath? No.
But I’m no wiser than the fool that I was before.

Dashing wildly through, forget that
I am alive. School, work, school, sleep. Dive, breathe
Dive again. Slip under water, give my
Condolences to life, holding breath, world on
Pause while I strive for something better.
Holding breath, lungs exploding, learning begins
And I balance and
begin to breathe. Slowly, wearily.
But I’m no wiser than the fool that I was before.

And another day of stifled panic revealed
One thing about who I am is that,
Head under water, pushed to the point
Of break or become;
I’ll beg for the punishment of no sleep and no life.
All for that piece of graduated paper.
But I’m no wiser than the fool that I was before.