Rispetto for the Stranded Traveler

Sienna, Italy

It's no news that April is poetry month, but it is news to me that I've decided to write a poem a day just to do it. I have the incomparable wordsmith and teacher Allison Joseph to thank. She's announced that she will write a prompt a day this month, and she shared one on Facebook today which I played with for awhile. I wrote a rispetto, an old Tuscan form of verse. Some are in iambic tetrameter, but not all. This one is composed of eight hendecasyllabic (11-syllable) lines, with an abababcc rhyme scheme.

Here's Allison's amusing prompt, in case you're looking for a bit of fun yourself:

"First one is to write a poem in response to the kind of spam email that tells you a friend is out of cash in a foreign country."


And here's my response.


Rispetto for the Stranded Traveler

You've never been stuck in Sienna before.
They'll withhold your passport and throw you in jail
if I don't send you funds. God knows what's in store
in Southern Europe with no one to post bail!
Cash, credit cards, cell—all stolen? And what's more—
your flight's in three hours? There's no time for mail.
I'll wire money, but I've got to confess—
I don't recognize your new email address.

If you write one, I hope you'll share it with me here!