Day 5 I hate incompetence

Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt:

“The Roman poet Catullus wrote a famous two-line poem:

Odi et amo: quare id faciam fortasse requiris.

Nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior.

Here’s an English translation.

                I hate and I love. Why do I do this, you ask?

                I don’t know, but I feel it happening and am tortured.

I thought about this poem the other day when I read a social media post collecting sentences from Charles Darwin’s letters, including:

                “Oh my God how do I hate species & varieties.”

               “I am very tired, very stomachy & hate nearly the whole world.”

                “I am very poorly today & very stupid & hate everybody & everything.”

                “I hate myself, I hate clover, and I hate bees.”

                “I am languid & bedeviled & hate writing & hate everybody.”

I must confess, the idea of being so grumpy that you have come to hate clover and bees is highly amusing to me. Today, your challenge is to take a page from Catullus and Darwin and write a poem in which you talk about disliking something – particularly something utterly innocuous, like clover. Be over the top! Be a bit silly and overdramatic.

Happy grumpy writing!”

One of the reasons I love NaPoWriMo is that I never know where these prompts will take me.

Here’s my offering for today:

I hate incompetence

Babies, with their chubby hands covered

in drool, can barely grasp the tip

of your finger. All the same, their eyes

search yours for approval.