#NaPoWriMo Day 9 ‘Fire and Ice’ #poetrymonth #April #99Words #Poems Carrot Ranch

National Poetry Writing Month is a poetry writing challenge to write a poem a day, which takes place every year in April. Follow the link to find out more, be inspired, get daily prompts and meet other poets!

For Day 9, I’m joining in with Charli Mills weekly Fash Fiction challenge to write 99 words exactly based on her prompt. On this occassion, the topic is ‘Fire’ and I’ve written a 99-word poem.

Click on the banner for more information about this weekly writing prompt!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fire and Ice

The flame flickers in her eyes,

As the fire scorches her tiny fingers.

A burning hearth appears

Before her stunned sight.

She enters a cosy drawing room

With tinseled Christmas tree

And presents wrapped in bow-tied boxes.

She smells the turkey cooking

Downstairs in the wood-fired oven.

She hears her grandmother calling,

Reminding her to lay the table

With porcelain plates and silver forks,

But the match burns her trembling hands,

Falling on the snow-covered pavement.

Darkness surrounds the little match girl,

As day breaks over the icy city.

‘Come child,’ says her grandmother,

‘There are no matches left.’

****

This poem was inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s poem, The Little Match Girl, first published in 1845, in Denmark.

Fortunately, there aren’t many children dying of cold and hunger in Denmark, or indeed Europe, today, but according to a 2018 UNICEF report, 3.1 million children under the age of 5 are dying every year as a result of malnutrition, so the struggle to erradicate child hunger and malnutrition in the world is far from over.

Ironically, whiche almost 2 billion people are overweight due to malnutrition, 2 billion are underweight due to lack of sufficient food.

Are there any match girls in you part of the world?