Tuesday Writing: Where do I get ideas for stories and poems?

Someone ask me where I get my ideas for my stories and poems. This is the first in a series of weekly articles to answer this question. One of the places I get ideas if from television. I especially like to watch the History Channel because the shows are interesting and encourage research. Today, Tuesday, January 19, I watched a show about giant rats.

Are there giant rats
Big as large dogs or house cats
Roaming our basements or sewers?

As I watched the show, the narrator talked about the possibility of ordinary rats evolving into super rats. These are gigantic rats the size of a dog or a large house cot. The show discussed what researchers were doing to investigate the reports of witnesses who said they saw huge rats in the sewer or basements of one of America's largest cities. I have not made up my mind on this subject because no giant rats were captured; however, I do think the witnesses saw something that frightened them. It is possible for rats to evolve into huge creatures and it makes a good plot for a story or theme for a poem.

Do witnesses exaggerate,
out of fear,
the size of the rats?