Write a micro or flash story (or if you prefer, a poem) around the following prompt:
Lab assistant
Gets amnesia
Guitar pick
Post your story or poem in the comment section below. Deadline: This Friday, June 14th
No minimum words but try to keep it under 750 words.
Have fun!
Now that I’ve declared I was a poet (much more so than just a fiction writer), I decided to really put myself out there.
By recording poetry as “spoken word.”
This was a huge thing for me as I absolutely HATE the sound of my own voice. This mainly stem from a history of speech problems due to my hearing impairment. So, after listening to other poets’ recording their poems, not to mention some hard-core loving encouragement from Susan Richardson, I took that leap.
Quiet was my very first attempt. This poem was actually inspired by having listened to so many of Avi Kaplan’s music:
Once was a poem I wrote years ago, but it’s a story I feel is still very relevant today:
*Author Note: If my husband could tell his story within the framework of a poem, this might be it. Everything you read is true.
Childhood, innocence
Taken by my father’s fists
Who snatched me away from Momma
Hopping state to state – slumming in trailer parks
No one wants you, they say
You’re nothing but a loser
Echoed the themes of my whole life
Daddy didn’t care,
Momma, nonexistent
Step mom, drug user
Not one who gave a damn
No one wants you, they say
You’re nothing but a loser
Then I met you on the college green,
You were that life-line I held on to
But those words refused to let me go–
No one wants you, they say
You’re nothing but a loser
Don’t even bother – you’re unworthy
I believed them, oh I believed
Never telling you how I truly felt
Letting you go – my greatest regret
As I watched you walk away
No one wants you, they say
You’re nothing but a loser
Continents and wars separated
Us until one day I learned
Someone’s stolen your heart
No one wants you, they say
You’re nothing but a loser
Without a care in the world High Risk became my game
No one would even know if
I’d died in some god-forsaken desert
No one wants you, they say
You’re nothing but a loser
Son of bitch, I survived
Like a cockroach I kept returning
Unwillingly, oh so what was the point?
They kept chanting–
No one wants you, they say
You’re nothing but a loser
Time blurred – broken dreams, heartaches
My constant reality as I wandered
The wasted land called Life
Perhaps there were some truth to the words–
No one wants you, they say
You’re nothing but a loser
One day, out of the blue
An email by you asking–
“Do you still remember me?”
Battles I’ve fought but never one as great
as on that day when in my heart
I truly wanted to hope —
No one wants you, they say
You’re nothing but a loser
Life was just as cruel to you
With your own battles
Losing your love, your sight
Do I remember you?
Oh, yes…
No one wants you, they say
You’re nothing but a loser
Slowly fading, fading till only a whisper
Twenty years have since passed
I still hold you in my arms and
You hold my heart
You accepted me as I am
You loved me inspite of my
Brokenness
You saved a boy no one wanted
And instead of a loser
You made me the man I am today
You are my miracle
These feet
Stumble up the white
Mountain
My eyes
Teardrops like icepicks
Stabbing
This heart
No heat will ever
Unfreeze
Until
A song I hear in
The wind
Blue bird
So vocal and strong
Nestled
In the
Majestic black spruce
Teeming
Winter
Cannot stop a life
This small
Its eyes
Sparkle like a soul
On fire
Nature
In its truest form
Can heal
Broken
Hearts and shattered lives
–like mine
*Note: still a work in progress
Just because
You don’t do certain
Things well, you know
Like the rest of them
Does not
Leave you without a say
Feeling inferior
Caused by others
Tends to leave one feeling,
Well, like a dung beetle
Makes you
Wonder if what you say
ever matters
From one
Outsider to another,
Hear me
I say–
Release the dam
And let it flow
Freely
Those who thirst
Will drink every word
gladly
Your voice
-Its uniqueness-
Is power
Let it fly free
And be heard
There is a box
Mother keeps close
Next to her bed
Half of her heart
Now in ashes
Love of her life
If possible
I’d give her my
Splintered portion
Daddy, you were
Gone way too soon
An angel you
Keep watch o’er us
Amongst all the
Other souls who
Once filled our lives
Life may only
Be teardrops in
The pouring rain
But you’re the sun
Waiting to break
Thru the gray clouds
Tho I can’t see
I can feel your
Love shining down
And that alone
Will be enough
‘Till we meet on–
That golden shore
This poem is for my Daddy who passed much too soon
You wait for no one
You are no one’s friend
On and on you move
With no regards for any
Yet…
You’re the game-changer,
Healer, sage, shaman
Continuously
Recording all that passes
Without you…
We’d be dust in the wind
