In life, red flags seize our attention – warnings etched in sharp attitudes and uneasy behaviours. Green flags, their subtle opposites, quietly invite trust. Today, we'll write both into being, each reflecting the other.

I want you to write a duet poem, or a mirror poem, where the first poem looks at red flags, and after the major break or volta, the poem twists to show the green flags that are present in your new life.

Part I: Poeticise the Red Flags

1. Lean into abstraction

* Distort each warning sign into a metaphor. Gossip could clink like cracked porcelain, and a sneer could carve diagonals through conversation.

* Consider textures (splintered wood, scorched sugar), colours (rusted metal, oil slick black), and sounds (whining hinges, trapped breath).

* Don’t necessarily write JUST about these flags. Be abstract. You could write about something else but understand that these core warning signs will be inverted in the second half.

* Guidance:

* Use brief, fractured lines to mimic interruption.

* Break syntax or interrupt rhythm to leave your reader unsettled, mirroring your own discomfort.

Part II: Mirror Part I with the Green Flags

1. Invert every image

* If a door slammed shut in red, let it gently open here with someone asking ‘Can I come in?’

* Where gossip fractured porcelain, honesty might mend cups with gold-threaded seams like the Japanese art of kintsugi.

2. Maintain parallel form

* Echo your red stanza's structure, line by line, allowing contrast to illuminate each side clearly.

3. Invite embodiment

* What colour is relief? How does trust taste? Where in your body does ease reside? Let each inversion carry sensory detail.

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