Here is what I was given to work with:
Write a poem called "The New Constellation." In the poem you might call a constellation “Ethster” (sic) or "Path to the Boathouse at Evening."
First line: "I look into the night the way someone else might look into a microscope"
or: "Your pillow fills like a windsock."
use these words: enormous ferns, trolley, volcano, standing lamp, anesthetize, pink horizon
Forget about quality, get down 20 lines or so."
And with that:
The New Constellation
By Jason Warner
I look into the night the way someone else might look into a microscope:
with my back seriously hunched over and a bad eye squint.
But it is this close examination of the sky night after night,
that makes me realize that my love for you is brighter than 950 standing lamps.
You may think that I am being insincere,
Like that time I said I would jump into a volcano for you and never did,
But as sure as my hand is disfigured by that 7-11 window shrapnel,
I love you.
I love you more than being fanned by scantily clad women with enormous ferns.
I love you more than riding a trolley just so I can sing the Rice a Roni song.
I even love you more than the fuzzy feeling I get by reading Nicholas Sparks novels and Hallmark cards.
And sometimes, when I anesthetize my arm with well placed rubber bands,
you are the last thing on my mind before I pass out.
When the pink horizon signals the end of another day,
and before I go read Penthouse Forum for another hour,
I search out the constellation that I have named in your honor.
The Snot Princess might not be the lovliest sight in the sky,
but it's more than Fievel ever had.
That was the mushiest poem ever! What else is on the page?!