Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “new/old.” Use either or both of the words “new and old” any way you’d like. Bonus points for starting and ending with either one. Have fun!
News hit my email that made me sad. Though it was not other than my I might of expected yet I am railing against it. Nothing new, age old it’s the circle we all go through no one and nothing lives forever.
I tossed and turned and in my dreams I was lost on a journey on a train. Again nothing new about that, it seems I am forever lost. I awoke ever hour on the hour, same old scared feeling. Life goes on until it stops. None of this makes sense.
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 this week’s challenge, the word TIP must be one of the D line words. Then the other D line(s) word(s) must rhyme with TIP. I have also used the prompt words from Ronovanwrite’s Weekly Haiku Challenge Morrow and Surge.
Welcome to the Décima Poetry Challenge. Each week we’ll be attempting a Décima, also known as an Espinela, poem.
If you don’t know how to write a Décima, click HERE to go to a post on How to Write an Espinela or Décima Poem.
We only get once chance at life Sadly time is not infinite This is true though it might sound trite Why face the morrow filled with strife. The pens of fate our lives rewrite. In the morn all our fears will serge Our hopes and dreams begin to merge. Over the edge our feelings tip As into the abyss we slip. We all dance to Lucifer’s dirge.
What a state this world is in. We have a dying planet, choked up with emissions, and strangled with plastic and waste. Now I am sure the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are here. I wrote the poem / story below some years ago. I thought things were bad then yet nothing has improved infact it’s worse. So I have revamped the story today!
IS IT REALLY TOO LATE?
Time was late, the day was cold the doors of the coffee shop suddenly flew apart
The scene from the street was enough to stop your heart.
Four horse men
Slowly and silently approached along the street.
No one could of known, this was the place they had assigned to meet.
As this strange apparition it’s progress did make,
It left fights and hunger and deathly illness in it’s wake.
Where once was the normal order of life
Was suddenly killing and gorging, sickness, death and strife.
Stopping their horses and dismounting as one
They found a spare lamp post their magnificent animals to leash upon.
One of their number scanned the street “No parking meters ….sweet”
They entered the coffee shop and two fights broke out
And terrible hunger and thirst spread about.
Terrified customers died in the rush for the door
People started to sicken with rashes and pustules and what’s more there was blood and guts all over the floor.
Death motioned the others to get a table
As he addressed the barista, a sickly lad and ordered “four Americanos and a bagel!”
The boy felt so weak as he looked in to the eyes of Death fear gripped his throat
The rest of his staff were in the same boat lost and helpless’ bereft of hope!
Setting down the tray and handing Famine his food,
“I wanted espresso “griped War in a mood.
Death raised his scythe and told him to mind his place.
For he had the last word and was in charge of this space!
Finally with the local humans all dead
They sipped quietly on their coffee, just for now doing what their leader had said.
After a short while Conquest / Pestilence looked up
And asked “is this coffee fair trade” as he finished his cup.
Famine smirked at the joke his brother had made.
“I need another , where is the barista ” Death answered ” He died”…… “Okay” Famine sighed
Coffee over, decisions needed to be made
How to deal with this world’s problem. Plans had to be laid.
“I think I should simply traverse this world
And make them their missiles unfurl,”
Said War before adding “with you, Death in my wake,
How long would total annihilation take?”
“No “chipped in Pestilence I can spread my cloak and make them all suffer.
I have a new toy Corvid 19
It favours the old and sick , it very keen.
You can then step in Death, as they choke and splutter.”
War banged the table ready to fight
But Death stepped in knowing his way was right .
Looking around brothers do you not agree
They are doing an excellent job of destroying themselves without any help from you or me.”
He saw they were not happy with his interventions
So he enlightened them all with ghastly intentions .
“We need to just hover on the sidelines and leave them to fester.
It will all end soon, this planet cannot sustain forever these hopeless jesters!
They thought for a while while Death entertained them, with his fiddle
Like Nero back when Rome was burning. but not such giggle.
The decision was made and they all agreed
They would just make thing worse for all those in need .
They would feed the wars and starve the medical fractions,
Of knowledge and money.
They would disease the corn the milk and the honey.
Death would stalk the world in his usual way
Clearing up the mess and dead at the end of the day.
They then left the scene of their destroying powers
Riding off together into the west leaving death and destruction and lots of wilting flowers .
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The News papers and TV got the story the very same day.
“Police want to question four hoodies on horse back ” they say.
There is a witness a child who manage to hide and lived to tell what they had seen.
Apparently strange horses, one white,one red, one black and one pale green?
This made the headlines all over, for a day, well maybe one day more
Then it is back to Famine and Plague in Africa and the States and UK to step into yet another War!
The Greens are screaming we must save Mother Earth
Unknowing that she already dancing a dirge with Death.
.
Death sat in a corner and polished his scythe and pondered the meeting that morning,
Well he had at least tried to buy these humans ( for whom he actually cared) some time .
But even holding off his brothers, of hope there still was no sign.
He was tired of all the work he had to do,
Exhausted in fact, and his brothers were too.
The task set before them was too great for them to solve ..
Hopefully God will intervene and those irritating humans will evolve !
As the Apocalyptic quartet rode off claiming souls
They were laughing at humans all bulk buying toilet rolls.
All that paper won’t help them survive
With plague’s new new virus, no amount of loo roll will keep them alive.
For visually challenged writers, theimage shows a landscape wearing a light dusting of snow. From the hill, where skeletal heather and brown grasses pierce the snow, a valley spreads out below, lit by the rays of a pale sun.
After the noise of the battle earlier the silence cut like a knife. The snow was doing a good job of covering the dead and dying. From nowhere came silver rays from the sun bathing the valley in an almost gentle way.
It seemed almost impossible that only at dawn she had stood on the horizon looking toward the castle wondering what was to come. There had been no snow or cold when she had arrived. The witches still held sway over the climate around the castle. Yet as she had stood in the early morning warmth wondering about her future she had felt the temperature drop and seen the white of the Vampire winter approaching.
Realising there was no time to waste she ran to the castle altering those within to the incoming danger. Not bothering to morph from wolf to human she bounded up the stairs howling. She halted at the sight of Ewan, relieved to see he was back to his old irritating self! He confirmed this by patting her head. ***********
The men, dwarves and elves were ready, Rachel told Ewan that the warewolves were on their way. Everything was set and ready, the battle was nigh.
The snow and ice covered the ground silently, it didn’t fall from the sky it was just there. The temperature plummeted, the men’s breath frosted their beards as they saddled their horses, the dwarves drew their cloaks about them against the cruel wind, their axes glinting in the pale morning light. The elves lined the turrets their quivers full of wooden arrows tipped with silver.
The men on horses rode out across the draw bridge and lined up outside the castle in a phalanx the others formed a line infront of then with their spears and weapons raised. Not one of these brave men had ever fought vampires before. The dwarves were ready inside the gates singing and banging drums. The women, children and the old were all inside the castle praying to their gods . Alicia, Lisa and Rachel stood on the ramparts with the elves.
Then of a sudden a whispering, a screaming, a moaning carried across the valley and up the hill towards the castle. “They are here” shouted Alicia, “where” shouted the men. Too late they were upon them , bodies flew around, and were torn apart, men’s and horse’s hearts ripped out and thrown upon the ground. The vampires were invisible they picked the men off simply and cruelly. Within minutes men lay dead and dying, disemboweled, quartered some just drained of blood.. The elves fired into thin air and many arrows met their mark, revealing the evil vampires, writhing and screaming as they caught on fire then turned to dust.
Not a man was left standing not one survived the carnage. All the while the vampires fill the air with their screams and threats.
Hope stirred in her cot, she visualised the Vampire hoards and broke their veil of invisibility. The Elves took aim and fired their arrows up into the sky from where they rained down on the the enemy. The dwarves now came into their own as each vampire swooped at them they used their honed weapons to decapitate as many as they could. Sadly the dwarves took heavy losses.
Lisa and Alicia felt Hope’s power and they joined with her willing the sun to shine at its brightest and hottest. Slowly their powers joined and the warmth in the sun turned into heat. The elves could see the younger vampires crawling up the castle walls and taking advantage of the light they shot at them mercilessly. Rachel looked out to the plains where she saw that the hoards of Vampires were still massing. All was lost how could they cope how could the beat these numbers? The humans barring the women, children and old all dead, all gone. The Dwarves were valiantly holding the castle but for how much longer!
Then a miracle happened the Vampires began to feel the effects of the sun.. they began to burn, black dust from them coated the snow. Their war screams turned to wails of anguish and pain as they died.
The order from the ancients went up R
“Retreat, Retreat” and soon the sky was full of retreating and burning vampires.
After the noise of the battle earlier the silence cut like a knife. The snow was doing a good job of covering theb dust and human dead and dying. From nowhere came silver rays from the sun bathing the valley in an almost gentle way. The heat was gone and the cold had returned. The vampires had gone for now they would be back at night.
Hope stirred in Lisa’s arms as her power subsided so did her mother’s and Alicia’s. “Sleep for now Hope my darling” whispered Lisa, ” they shall not have you” The child smiled in her sleep.
To be continued.
If you wish to read Lisa’s and Rachel’s story up to this point you can find it here.
This week Jim Adams our talented host for Song Lyric Sunday has said that this week’s prompt is : November 17, 2019 – Did/Didn’t/Do/Don’t/Does/Doesn’t.
This week Jim’s prompt for us set me in mind of my dear friend Karen who died of cancer of the osphagus. We were close friends, I was not long out if hospital having broken my back badly , for the second time, when I got the news from Karen that she was ill.
The reason I have chosen Don’t stop me now by Queen will become apparent at the end of this post.
Don’t Stop Me Now” is a song by the British rock band Queen from their 1978 album Jazz and released as a single in 1979. Written by lead singer Freddie Mercury, it was recorded in August 1978 at Super Bear Studios in Berre-les-Alpes (Alpes-Maritimes), France, and is the twelfth track on the album. More information here.
I hope no one minds me making this so personal but this is Karen’s song.
To Karen
Karen
I rang her every day for over a year,
I begged to come see her but she would not let me near.
We laughed with each other but more often we cried.
I wanted to be with with her but her fears, this to me denied.
I begged her to fight it she told me she was tired
I nagged and bullied she said I was fired!
Things never got better she slipped from my grasp
I tried hard to see her but she still refused, so I did as she asked.
Then finally the day came and I got the call
At last I got to visit , not that she knew at all.
I talked of blue skies and beaches and clouds
I did not whisper I told her out loud.
She was struggling for breath then I caught her eye in a moment of clarity
I told her I loved her she flashed at me “no pity!”
Her hands were dirty her nails were lined black
Her pain and the squalor are the memories that keep coming back.
I spent four days in her company
I could not believe what I had to see.
I hated her suffering as she breathed her last,
Sadly these horrid memories stuck in my mind, the ones which I cannot get past.
It was a foggy freezing December day
When we all met at the Crematorium our goodbyes to say.
To a larger than life, loud colourful girl
Who with a flash of her eyes could set our working day in a whirl.
I sat there sobbing but she had to have the last word
“Get a grip you silly cow” were the words that I heard.
Then as her coffin disappeared for her final bow
She went out with a flourish to Queen’s ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’.
They were so brave, so very young Their journey had not yet begun. Blindly they marched into the guns To a last roll call at the setting sun. They had family and loved ones They all marched off as friends They left their homes full of hope Most would not be back again.
Why Argue Both were brave Each had their own Principles to up Hold. Neither less than bold. One would carry a weapon The other a stretcher, no gun Both men died for their own held beliefs They were both lost and that loss brought much grief. ———
From the beginning of time up until now and way in to the future war prevails. I believe we will never be free of war.
What we can do is remember those who have given their health or their lives for us to hopefully live better lives. I say Thank You.
