Our Hostess with thmostest Colleen said :”You can choose the Ekphrastic #PhotoPrompt provided by Trent McDonald, or you can choose the #SynonymsOnly challenge using the words “MOVE & MAKE” provided by David Ellis.
OR… You can do both! It’s up to you#
This week I have decided to write a Etheree using Trent MacDonald’s photo and David Ellis‘s words. I used glide, skimming and sailing for move and create and manufacture for make.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA: Milford Pond
I Glide through Life, serene Swanlike skimming Not a ripple seen Sailing through like a dream Nothing betrays the madness Created by my feet beneath Autumn colours also manufacturer A gentle serenity to fool all.
Sue Vincent has been setting us Thursday photo prompt your years now. Sue encourages us to use the image in her fabulous photos. This is a prompt from 2016 The photo prompt is of an unlit beacon against the stormy sky to create a post on your own blog… poetry, prose, humour… light or dark,
Sue is fighting her own battle against cancer at the moment she needs all our love support and healing vibes, as does Mary Smith , Bee Halton. Also Ellen Best and Abigail Johnson and many more I don’t know of. I am sending love to all whether I know you or not consider yourself hugged.
Unlit Beacon
No one remembers now why the beacons are always lit at dusk. No one even questions the reasoning behind the daily task of building the beacons only for them to be set a light just before dark.
It was a fair system, one person from each household was chosen to be a beacon builder and the leader of each village, town or city would light the beacon every night.
There was no argument about the system it just worked. Years turned into centuries,centuries into millennia and the system stayed and the beacons lit the nights and could even be seen from transplanet shuttles. Yes just like the water on the planet the light from the beacons shone out into space.
Even now in this modern age of enlightenment, space travel, planet wide peace,computors and universal translators the beacons are lit . No one knows why, no one knows who started this tradition? Why does no one care, am I the only inquiring mind on the planet.
So I did enquire, I searched the uninet. I spent hours in Libraries of Antiquity I even asked those in charge, the politicians, the leaders even the old ones ….. no one could or would answer.
Then about three nights ago my phone rang, no one there, a wrong number I thought. So I went to bed. It was about 1am when they came, the men in grey suits and white faces. They smashed down the doors and thumped up the stairs they woke my wife and my children. I heard their screams. The last thing I remember as I was being dragged from the house was my wife’s voice and the sight of all our phones and uninet equipment being packed up.
They kept me in a dark room for two days, I think, as I became unsure of the passage of time. At regular intervals they brought me out for questioning. They used force, kindness and rationality and finally drugs .
I told them I just wanted to know about the beacons, no I was not working with anybody else. I had found out nothing at all. After a while I realised they knew nothing either! They were disappointed that I had learned nothing.
At some point today they brought out from room and gave me some clothes and a watch. We went by private transport to a military base I was escorted on to a transplanet shuttle. We landed at five in the evening. They brought me to a becon on a deserted hill. Miles from anywhere. By 6pm I knew my fate. I was chained up inside the beacon. I am sad that I never found out about the beacons, I am devastated that I shall never be able to tell my family I love them. I am afraid to burn.
Dusk is here now and I am all bloodied from struggling, hoarse from shouting. The flames have started I can feel the heat. I look up and see the most glorious sunset. The flames bite and I give in to death…
6am, an hour before the becon builder would arrive for work a man in grey raked through the ashes of the beacon untill he found the watch capsule.He took it to the unmarked car he had arrived in and put the capsule into the player. After listening to the man’s account of his search and his end he sighed deeply.
Later at the meeting with his supervisor he said”No sir he new nothing either” He took a sip of his coffee but it tasted bitter.
This challenge explores Ekphrastic writing inspired by visual art (photographs). Lisa Thompson, from last month’s challenge, has provided the photo for this month’s challenge:
In these dark days I remember the saying my hubby often uses now about our leaders. Who try to keep us in the dark and give very mixed messages and ever changing information. I have chosen a Tanka to express my feelings.
Image credit:Unsplash, and the photographer is Wolfgang Hasselmann
Mushroom management.
Bright read for danger Upwards pursuing the light Escaping darkness. Our lives are managed like this Kept in the dark and fed shit.
For visually challenged writers, theimage shows a blue-lit landscape, land and calm water mirroring the cloudy, silver-lit sky.
My feet are cold, but I am past caring there is nothing left for me here. I step forward water rises up my legs, it’s no longer cold. My dress billows and the silver light touches my face. I am no longer tired, the pain is lifted from me as if I am cutting the ties that bind me. I move even further from the shore my steps unsteady now as the water reaches my chest. I am warm, I am rested I am happy. I slip beneath the waves and all I see is blue , as I look up I see the last of the silver light in the sky.
All of a sudden he is there his long red hair, his blue eyes and his beautiful silver fish tail. Wrapping me in his arms around me he whispers, “I told you I would wait for you, all you had to do was come to me.”
In the ICU the doctor shook his head , “We’ve lost her” he said, “Time of death 21.27″…the long whistle of the machine stopped as he turned it off leaving the low but determined beeps of the other patient’s machines in the background.
Her assigned nurse said quietly, “She really tried she kept on fighting, why did she just give up like that?” The team looked at her in silence then one of them said, “She looks amazing, there is a real aura of serenity about her”
( For the visually challenged reader, the image shows a girl dancing under the jets of water of a fountain, which are meeting above her in an arc)
Dancing in my head
“Your stuck with curvature You’ll never look the same. So you better make friends with that pain.”
Looking out the window I heard the words they said But I was miles away dancing in my head .
When I get upset, not feeling free. In rain, sun or snow . Those words come back to haunt me . So into my head I go.
When I feel pushed and pressured All I can think of is the words they said. I close my eyes and bugger them,
I go dancing in my head!
When looking in the mirror is too much to bare My clothes look like something I shouldn’t wear. I close my eyes and let the music flow. Then dancing in my head I go.
When pain is over baring and I can’t get out of bed I close my eyes and bugger them I go dancing in my head.
I am still the me I was before.
Though not quite the same. When I am at my worst I play my saving game. I am sorry if you think me rude and blanch at things I’ve said.
But when it all becomes too much I go dancing in my head.
So don’t judge me by my cover I am still a happy soul. I may not be perfect but I am whole. When things get too much and depressions wanting fed. Bugger it I shout and go dancing in my head
For visually challenged writers, theimage shows the dark silhouette of a tree against a cloudy sky. The horizon is lit by the gold of dawn, while a crescent moon hangs above the tree.
This week’s prompt ~ Crescent a Nonet
Above the field bathed in silver moon light. Waiting to launch into the night . She yearns so for company Hearing the pounding hearts Below her lust starts. Pumping red, warm Her fangs bared Crescent Moon
