Sarah Mandell

Playing Mall Madness, 1992 was inspired by the board game Mall Madness that I played as a young girl during sleepovers in the early 90s. In the game, you build a mall out of plastic pieces and decorate it with storefronts that sell everything from computers to jewelry to sunglasses. Up to four players can play. They start in the parking lot before going from store to store in pursuit of buying at least 6 items before returning to the parking lot to win the game. Each item has a full price, sale price, and clearance price available. Strategically, players will want to buy cheaper items quickly to fill their player card. During the game, players may run out of money and can go to the bank for more funds. However, their cards can be denied for no reason other than pure chance. 

Reading through the rules and looking at the game pieces, I incorporated phrases that were distinct to Mall Madness throughout my poem. The speaker box from the original 1991 game is sharp and abrupt, and by inserting these phrases inside sentences, I tried to copy that style. In addition, by describing a sleepover scene, I wanted to evoke a feeling of nostalgia. Four stanzas of longer narrative lines, create a storytelling effect that allows the reader to picture themselves playing the game along with the speaker. I used quatrains because it feels traditional, and the lines are similar lengths showing a very boxy appearance that looks similar to the gameboard which is a large rectangle. And lastly, having the phrase from when the bank denies your request for credit (Try again later), I leave the reader with the feeling of growing up too fast before one is ready. 

Village Life was inspired by frequent visits over the years to Watters Creek Shopping Center in Allen, Texas. This open-air mall surrounds a green space with cement benches arranged in a semi-circle with a playground built into the trees to the east and a small creek to the north. A small bridge connects the green space to the road and sidewalks. Multiple restaurants are nearby, and the stores are incorporated into apartment buildings with balconies that look out over this beautiful outdoor space.

The poem was created initially during an afternoon of small interviews at a few of my favorite stores. After talking to several salesclerks and observing the variety of shoppers milling about on a weekday afternoon, I incorporated this picturesque scene into the 4 stanzas with long sentences that mimic a feeling of wandering around the space. In using images that appear like snapshots, I was hoping to offer a narrative observational quality that allows the reader to feel as though they are sitting in the green space itself along with the speaker. I tried to avoid too many words with hard sounds so that the flow of the poem would feel more quiet and serene. And lastly, by ending with song lyrics, I hoped to give the sense of soundtrack to go along with the scene I created.