The Gooseberry Girl

  I once cracked a glimpse

  of the gooseberry girl,

  lean in her tangle of twigs.

  A wild brambled thing,

  her eyes

  the colour of ponds.

  When I drew close,

  she rusted in my hands.

  Now there's a cabinet  

  filled with jars,        

  labels written by hand,  

  contents the colour 

  of moss and stone.

  Red stains my hands.

  My legs,

  cut with thorns of joy.

Today's NaPoWriMo prompt: Describe in great detail your favorite room, place, meal, day, or person. You can do this in paragraph form. Now cut unnecessary words like articles and determiners (a, the, that) and anything that isn’t really necessary for content; leave mainly nouns, verbs, a few adjectives. Cut the lines where you see fit and, VOILA! A poem!

When I removed the unnecessary words from my descriptive piece, I found a story began to emerge. I ended up re-inserting a few articles and determiners in service of this new story.