Composed 11/9/17
Description: Inspired by today’s Daily Prompt: Gingerly.
With you there’s only eggshells
For you are an electric fire
Any prodding emits sparks
Water begets electrocution
Discussion – only more smoke
More tears
I fear
So I just bury you in sand and walk on eggshells
So oft I’ve tread these paths
Most times I don’t even feel
Composed 10/27/16
Description: Inspired by today’s Daily Prompt: Smoke.
A quick search on my blog will show you I am no stranger to this topic or metaphor; though, each piece strongly tied to this topic ranges in style. Secondhand Smoke is a simple, bitter though (in phrasing) funny haiku, while the simply-titled Smoke is one of my more experimental pieces, strongly tied to real events and people and chockful of obscure symbolism (which I should definitely do more!). The present piece lies somewhere in the middle.
The world may catch aflame
Burn to the ground and smolder
But cast your eyes not to the desolate earth
Instead follow the smoke
As it rises, catches the wind
And curls up to the stars
Let your gaze be caught your
Chin lifted
As you find pictures in the wisps
And remember what rests above
Composed 4/8/16
Description: For Day 7 of NaProWriMo, in which the optional prompt suggested we write a tritina. I had never written one before, so it was a fun challenge!
You soothed my soul with words like water
And steadied me like stone cold earth
But still you set my skin on fire
All humans sing and yearn for fire
And drink down passion like thirst for water
Soon many fall, drunk, onto the earth
You may tremble like the earth
Exude heat like the strongest fire
But you nourish all like purest water
I belong where water is clean, fire unburning, earth unyielding
Composed 1/1/16
Description: Prompt from writeworld. Mission: Write a story, a description, a poem, a metaphor, a commentary, or a critique about this picture.
His fingers spread like growing vines
And touched her skin so pale and sweet
He felt the blood pump through her veins
Gentle thuds in steady beats
From each seam, each pore heat wafted off
An aura of delectability
It swam up each thin, arching stem
A fire forming internally
It crawled up his arms
Hung in his chest
A strangely lovely burning wheeze
He breathed hot smoke
His insides glowed
Shade hung from a grin, sharp and pleased
She fell limp and her skin felt cold
Silence within her too-still form
The spines retreated as a breath was taken
And the red hot man went strolling home
Composed 5/5/15
Description: n/a
You think you’re fire
A hot, alluring force
Unique, endless light
But you’re an explosion
You shock
You burn
You blind
Once they flocked to you but
Your deception is not subtle
So they run
No one wants to burn and die
Is it strange we hide?
Composed 7/2/13
Description: Another piece inspired by a mix of recent feelings and reflections. I’m not 100% sold on the title (a little too vampire connotative, perhaps?), so if you have any suggestions (or like this one) I would love to hear your thoughts!
I detest the sun
That once nourished me
Brought color to my cheeks
Warmth to my limbs
An inferno raging
Twisting in my chest
My stomach
Now the sun fills me
With different fire
It sickens me
I exhale
And erupt in flames
I flee to the shadows
Scoff at the lotus
Blushing and fragrant
In the sun’s refreshed light
I yearn
I crawl
I stand
I grow
I will thrive in the darkness
And reach out toward the sun
The lotus will fall in the shadow
The sun will shine upon me
But I will throw up my hands
And block its light
I no longer need it
To live
Scraps of Paper 