The exercise:
Write four lines of prose about: the worm.
Long day of harvesting. Ready for sleepy time go night night now.
Mine:
It's stuck. I keep trying to get rid of it but it just won't budge. At this point I'm at a complete and utter loss.
This earworm is going to drive me insane.
6 comments:
It continues to puzzle me slightly that the German word Öhrwurm came over into English as a direct translation: "earworm". It just seems a little uglier in English somehow. But fair enough, if you have earworms in your head then I won't mention Video killed the radio star :)
The worm
They called Johnny "the worm" because he was thin and flexible and could wriggle in through tiny basement windows or through bathroom windows only supposed to open enough to let the steam out. Once inside it was usually only a matter of minutes before he'd turned the alarm off and undone the locks, so it was usually worthwhile having him on the team. It was only when he had the "accident" that Mad Frankie had so presciently talked about and was cut in half that his name took on a new meaning.
Now they spoke of the "the worms" in hushed voices.
There it came, slithering
Towards the blonde youth standing
Near her siblings as they loaded the bus. Seeing
The slimy creature, she flew down the street, screaming.
Greg - Video killed... you're a terrible person, you know that? :P
Ah, jeez. That concluding image you've put in my head...
I should just go to bed before it gets any worse around here!
Ivybennet - hah, a scene perfectly captured! Wonderfully done. I particularly liked your use of line breaks in this one.
I stood, transfixed, over the wriggling worm. Inching along, bathing in the sun, moving through the topsoil in my mother's garden. Where was it going? Would it be safe or snatched up by a-
Squish. A dirty sneaker blocks my view. Where had the worm gone? Grayson chuckled out of spite and wandered off, leaving me with the worm's remains.
Grayson was the one who introduced me to death. He didn't care about the worm. "It's beneath us," he later justified, but I couldn't see it. Is that how people justify killing humans?
The death of the worm was the first instance where my childhood naivety began to peel away. It only worsened as Grayson and I matured.
Nikki - some excellent character development in such a short space. I would be happy to hear more about your narrator and Grayson, especially after reading that final line.
@Marc Thank you for your comments! I hope to continue with them as well.
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