NaPoWriMo - April, 2025 - Poem: The Reign of Parlotta Louise

NaPoWriMo 2025

04/11/25 - Day 11 of 30

NaPoWriMo.net Article


NaPoWriMo Prompt

And last but not least, today’s (optional) prompt. Take a look at Kyle Dargan’s “Diaspora: A Narcolepsy Hymn.” This poem is a loose villanelle that uses song lyrics as its repeating lines (loose because it doesn’t rhyme). Your challenge is, like Dargan, to write a poem that incorporates song lyrics – ideally, incorporating them as opposing phrases or refrains. A few lyrics that might work, if you need inspiration:

“Is this the real life? / Is this just fantasy?”

“I read the news today, oh boy…”

“The world is a vampire…”

“At first I was afraid, I was petrified”

“There is a house in New Orleans”

“You shake my nerves and you rattle my brain”

“I went down down down and the flames went higher.”

“The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades.”

“Nothing ain’t nothing, but it’s free.”


My Poem

Lyrics:

“This is the queen of my double wide trailer

With the polyester curtains and the red wood deck.

Sometimes she runs and I’ve got to trail her.

Dang her black heart and her pretty red neck.”

-”Queen of My Double Wide Trailer”, Kershaw, Sammy

The Reign of Parlotta Louise

The queen of my double wide trailer.

Is Parlotta Louise, my jailer,

I gave her my heart. She tore it apart.

She’s run off and I’ve got to trail her.

Didn’t I do all I knew how?

Paid for tattoos, never called her a cow.

Grilled up them steaks. Shooed off them snakes.

Gave over my slippers to her stupid black chow.

Weeks later I hand her another blank check.

And she leaves me to ponder, a blubbering wreck.

I can’t help but wonder if I made a blunder.

Dang her black heart and her pretty red neck.