Write a Persona Poem in an Unlikely Voice

A persona poem fails the moment the poet's own voice leaks through. This writes a dramatic monologue in the voice of someone, or something, far from you: a lighthouse, a virus, a medieval scribe. The diction, syntax and references all belong to that world, and the speaker is never announced; the voice gives itself away. Eighteen to twenty-eight lines. For poets stretching beyond the first person.

Write a dramatic monologue poem in the voice of {PERSONA}, a figure who is not human, or who occupies a radically different subject position from the reader. The voice must be consistent and specific throughout: use diction, syntax, and reference points that belong to this persona's world, not the poet's. The poem should be 18 to 28 lines. Do not explain who the speaker is: let the voice reveal itself through what it notices, what it wants, and what it refuses to say directly. Include one moment where the persona betrays something about their inner life that contradicts their apparent surface. End on an image that is specific to this persona's physical or existential situation, not a universal human moment, but a particular one.