Wednesday June 15th, 2011

The exercise:

Let's go with: disappointment.

Yeah...

On the plus side: after this you guys don't have to hear me go on about hockey for at least the next few months!

Mine:

I think that's the strongest emotion I'm feeling right now. Not about the Canucks losing game 7 - I'm already mostly over that. There's always next year and all that good stuff.

No, it's the handful of fans in downtown Vancouver who are going to get all the headlines tomorrow (and already have tonight). The ones who decided to flip over cars and set them on fire. Who decided to smash windows and get themselves arrested.

Perhaps 'fans' is not the right word. Maybe 'idiots looking to start trouble who found a half-assed excuse to do so' would be a more accurate label.

It is, sadly, just like what happened the last time the Canucks lost in game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Have we really not learned anything in the last 17 years?

At the end of the day, it's just a game. Relax. There's no need to vandalize and get (or add to?) a criminal record. There's no need to tarnish a entire city's reputation.

It's all just... very disappointing. And haven't we had enough of that from our hockey team?

8 comments:

Greg said...

Aw, I'm sorry, but at least they got to the finals and took it all the way to the very last game. That's about as close a second-place as you can get -- and like you say, there's always next year!
The hooligans are definitely a disappointment, but it seems that there are always some people for every sport who are really only there for the trouble they can cause. I bet even the Tiddlywinks Championships have these problems....

Disappointment
There are shadows drawing 'cross the Wasteland,
Falling like a curtain, bringing in the night.
Phlebitis sits, disappointed, by the statue,
Drinking antique liquor and getting tight.
The treasure map has been discarded at his feet,
The treasure found and then found niggardly and wanting
The giggle-wights have gathered at the exits,
Phlebitis sees this and knows he's due a haunting.
The only way to go now is return,
Shoulder disappointment and be strong.
But Phlebitis fears the mocking smiles of men,
And hates to be a person who was wrong.

morganna said...

White dress,
Flowers, church hall,
Wedding party, bride, groom.
Everything is set for the
Best day of my life. Wait. The groom's fleeing.
Wait, come back. Don't leave me alone
At the altar -- dressed up
Pretty in a
White dress.

motherinToronto said...

Disappointment

Standing at his grave I wanted to scream that I wasn't finished with him yet. He didn't have my permission. Like an older brother, he had watched out for me with his brilliant smile; brought me out of obscurity with his easy charm. I thought people grieved for their loved ones. But the truth was that I grieved for myself. I grieved for what the bastard had taken from me when he took his life. I grieved for a future with him in it. I grieved for my disappointment. I never needed to grieve for him. He was dead.









I think writing dark stuff is just generally easier. I just wasn't able to think of something cheerful for disappointment. Sorry about the hooligans effing up downtown Vancouver.

Anonymous said...

Please excuse my poem - this prompt was kinda difficult for me to write about.

Disappointment
They just don't understand -
It may not seem monumental to them,
But it is to me.
I have disappointed myself yet again.
And in the end,
My opinion is the one that matters most -
Though I do applaud their efforts.

Marc said...

Greg - great, now I'm tempted to write a story about rioters at a Tiddlywinks competition...

I'm quite enjoying your works about this Phlebitis character.

Morganna - I think you really nailed that one.

Mother in T.O. - yeah, disappointment doesn't exactly lend itself to happy stories.

You did an excellent job with yours though. It really painted a vivid picture.

Anon - I don't see anything that needs excusing. In fact, I can relate to its message all too well.

Aaron said...

Kind of wrote a depressing poem because it was easy to just blank out and write what came to mind. I am not as terrible as the poem makes me out to be but i'm also not as great as I would like to be.
-motherintoronto I thought what you wrote was beautiful in its ugliness. -greg I like what you are doing with phlebtis
-marc hockey seems nuts violent so fans nuttery makes sense

Disappointment
Disappointment comes from expecting a certain future but getting a different one
I guess that is why I am a disappointing son they wanted a doctor and got me instead
I guess that is why I am a disappointing boyfriend she wanted a strong man and got me instead
I guess that is why I am a disappointing friend they wanted a reliability and got me instead
I guess that is why I disappoint myself because I wanted to be those things and instead I was myself
But I never disappointed my dog and I think I never will
He accepts me as I am, imperfect as that is,
And I’m taking daily lessons accepting what this is
A moment, with a future still unwritten, that’s just expecting me to live.

Heather said...

Marc- I understand your disappointment in the residents of Vancouver very well. I had my own dish of cold-serve disappointment last night from my state government.
------

It seemed only a moment for the thick clouds to roll in. The dark color and sooty texture warned of dangers to come. They devoured wispy clouds that had stayed to frolic in the open blue pasture. Trees bent to their will. Leaves scattered like mice in a field. Lightning struck out from the clouds and the ground shook in terror as the awesome power of mother nature was released. I stood at the door, my skirt flapping the wild beats of my heart.

Slowly, I crumpled the letter in my hand. "Dear Love," it said, "Meet me when the Night Jasmine blooms under the watchful eyes of Aphrodite. There I will make myself known to you on June 19th."

In Aphrodite's presence stood a man drowning in disappointment as the rain washed over him. Clasping the knife in his hand more tightly, he stabbed it into the heart of an old oak tree. He wondered why his newest love had stayed away. He wondered if he was truly the man who could offer her salvation from the putrid world.

Marc said...

Aaron - I think that was beautifully expressed. Never forget that the dog is on to something :)

Heather - fantastic. I could picture every detail.