For today’s prompt, write a poem with at least four of the following eight words:

1.flat
2.ring
3.lavish
4.vessel
5.paper
6.blacklist
7.gaudy
8.tooth

These are my least favorite types of prompts (I prefer prompts that are more open-ended), but I have yet to miss a PAD (poem-a-day) challege since this time last year.  (I have figured out, due to Writer’s Digest alone, counting the 2 months of PAD, and the 10 months of Wednesday weeklys, that’s 100 poems a year.  I figure in 10 years or less, I will have written as many as Emily Dickinson did her whole life.)

The Artifacts of Jon Roddy

A cream-colored paper,
listing his personal effects,
underneath a gold tooth from the golden son—
harvested from the rubble and ruin.
It had shone like a bullet in the desert.
A silver wedding ring,
marking a bronze anni with Margot,
the diamond signifying what would have been.

Two items,
nested in a copper vessel—
an ashtray shaped like a cobra
feeding upon itself—
a prize won in his first card game.
Yet twas when he married Margot,
he felt like he’d won the lottery;
when Johnny had been born,
it was like making it all tax-free.

Such was the life of Jon Roddy,
melted down to the most precious of metals:
Gold, silver, copper—
he’d won every prize.

http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/2016-april-pad-challenge-day-15