The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: PAJAMAS (poem)

For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in THE BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.

I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?

For links to the prompts I've written on so far this year, please click on The Butterfly Hours tab above.

This month's prompts are notebook, October, office, pajamas, paper, party, pencil, perfume, phone book, photograph, pictures.

PAJAMAS

I'm not finding a lot of pajama memories in the vault. Maybe because I have always worn nightgowns, and I already wrote about that! I don't recall any of my siblings wearing pajamas either – my father and the boys pretty much just wore their underwear... and my mother and sister wore nightgowns, like me :) I do have some vague notion about us all wearing matching pajamas for Christmas morning – but I might be confusing that memory with my sister's family (who, does, in fact, dress in matching pajamas for Christmas morning photos).

As an adult I wear pajamas quite a lot – but not to sleep in. It's one of the perks of being a writer and spending a lot of time at home. So I've decided to write a pajama poem!

P.J. Days

I spend most days

in my p.j.s

not sleeping, no –

tapping away,

my mind ablaze

lost in a story-haze

as I search for words

to delight and amaze –

so cozy in my p.j.s

on these always-writing

days.

- Irene Latham