Upon Request

If you called me and said, “Hey, Tricia?  We’re doing a craft show or a rummage sale or a bake sale or a yard sale or a fundraiser of any kind, and we would love for you to contribute.  What can you give us?”

I would first feel compelled to make something,

or give something of value, 

or give away something I have plenty more of,

or contribute something altruistic that would do my heart good.

And today, I know what that would be.  I would set up a writing booth at your event.  I would have reams of paper, great pens, a timer, and a sign:

Poetry Upon Request

You Choose the Topic, I’ll Write for You.

And, in the vision I have of this whole fantastical wish, people would line up, pay $1.00 (and the proceeds would go to your benefit, of course), give me a topic, and set the timer for two minutes for me to write and write and write.

They would ask me to write about anything.

Balloons

or jelly beans

or cotton candy

or butterflies

or friendship

or love

or tummies

or books

or school

or justice

or parenting

or boys

or girls

or grace

or anger

or breakups

or green beans.

Anything they choose.  And I would write with the practice of zero selfconsciousness, and I would hand off my work at the end of the two minutes.

Even if it was something good that I might like to keep, I would give it away.

And maybe a few people would like what I gave them, 

and she would hang it on her bathroom mirror 

or he would carry it in his wallet.

And I would have made something, given something of value, 

given away something I have plenty more of,

and contributed something altruistic that would do my heart good.

That’s what I would do.