The exercise:
The penultimate day of Space Week brings us to a four line poem about: isolated/isolation.
I know some of you chose to work your Two Haiku Tuesday into your prose and you're welcome to do something similar today, especially with tomorrow being the grand finale.
I'm too stubborn to do anything of the sort, of course.
Mine:
You're right where I want you,
No one else is near;
Scream as loud as you wish,
Not a soul will hear.
14 comments:
we wait in this void, alone,
unloved by even our own race.
so we call out to anyone and everyone
who drifts like us through space.
Outer Space part 6 Isolated
Sirius swooned
on dust marooned;
use your mind
to release in kind.
It was another riddle that entered Anna's head as she struggled to comprehend their predicament. Being stranded on a different planet in a completely foreign time zone was not her idea of ideal space exploration, yet such are the hazards one might encounter.
A mishap, a mistake, man, they took their toll! Looking outside the porthole, she observed dinosaur like creatures being hunted by trolls. They were not about to disembark here!
’Think! Think!’ Anna thought to herself. ’There has to be a simple way out of here...’
@jackerbie: there's something faintly sinister about that, but I really like it anyway :)
@writebite: I hope there is a simple way out! I like Anna!
@marc: Why would Miranda Sanchez be thinking like this? Oh wait... she's a mother and has to protect her child at any cost! Right? ;-)
Isolation
This is where we've always lived,
Yet such is our situation,
That though we're family and friends,
We're all trapped in isolation.
jjr, ditto greg.
greg, argh, scarily true...
marc, your short story format is in good form this week!
can't wait to see what the ladies write in..
Hm... let’s see what I can do for this one. I've only done four lines, rather than work it into the story. I think it works well this way.
Contact Continued
Humans covered with inch long hair, their red eyes shining in the glare.
Felines covered in downy fur, tawny in color and loathe to purr.
Lolita stands, blue eyes and yellow curls, watching as the two groups whirl.
The only pure human of the pack, she wishes Rachael would come back.
CL, great!
JorJack - really lovely. Captured a lot in just four lines.
Writebite - great scene, enjoyed the way you slipped in a few extra rhymes in the prose while you were at it :)
Greg - hah, we'll see about that :P
Great little poem. Like Jack's, really conveyed a lot with it in a small space.
Elor - nicely leading up to the finale! Great stuff :)
For some reason it got by me that this was too long, apparently. Let's try this again, shall we?
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
"So let me get this straight," began Thomas after letting me and Ime in through the kitchen, making me a cup of coffee I ended up not drinking, and demanding an account of the last few hours or so. "You found this bean of a spaceship in your folks' melon patch, met Ime, locked your brothers in the barn, escaped from your bedroom window on a borrowed bicycle, woke me up, and here you are."
"That's about the size of it," I replied, fidgeting with my mug.
"So why'd you come here?"
"Where else could I go? We're in the middle of nowhere, and I couldn't let Finn know about Ime, you know that."
"True enough." He fiddled with his bathrobe for a few moments, then took to examining Ime at a distance, only for a few seconds at first then looking away, but at increasingly longer intervals.
"Thomas Arthur Phillips, stop staring at Ime, that's rude."
He flinched at my scolding. "Sorry, sorry…"
"Don't apologize to me, apologize to Ime."
Ime, who had this entire time been examining Thomas just as closely, if not closer, sat contentedly on the kitchen table. Thomas sighed.
"Come on Thomas, bashfulness doesn't become you."
He straightened up. "Ime, I'm deeply sorry for staring at you, it's just…"
"It's what. Spit it out."
"It's just that I don't know what pronoun to use."
I was close to opening my mouth and telling him off for such a stupid reason, but then it dawned on me that I didn't know, either.
"Can I… y'know, ask?" he asked, clearly uncomfortable.
I shrugged, sharing his discomfort. Then I realized my mind echoed with jingles and shimmers of laughter. Ime was curled up, chirruping with obvious amusement.
Poor Thomas looked baffled. "Was it something I said?" he asked tentatively.
Ime stopped giggling long enough to say, I was wondering the same about you, and continued laughing.
"Well," said Thomas, "I'm what you might call a dude, and Sara over yonder's what you might call a lady."
I cracked up. "I wouldn't necessarily call you a dude, and you know perfectly well that I am far from a lady, thank you very much."
Thomas shrugged. "In either direction, Sara's a she, and I'm a he."
Ime nodded, still purring with giggles. I am the same as Sara, she said.
He sighed theatrically with relief. "Glad we got that cleared up, pronouns really make this world go 'round."
Speaking of this world, said Ime, turning to me, what are we seeing first?
"Whoa, whoa, what's this now?"
Sara said she would show me what this planet has to offer.
"So where are you taking Ime first, Sara? This little explorer's gotta see it all, or at least a taste of it all."
I shrugged. "I was hoping to figure that out in the morning---"
"Oh, these things need planning now! Come on, she's gotta see cities, villages, different climates, different people---"
"I was thinking that---"
"And no slouching either. You can't just go and show her Downtown Cowtown USA, bustling population 500. Come on, that's boring! Face it, there's hardly anything within a sixty mile radius worth showing this lovely visitor of ours."
He had a point, I'll admit, but I certainly wasn't going to tell him outright. "Fine then. Y'all got these ideas, and I don't know about Ime, but I for one am exhausted." I stood up from the kitchen table, letting Ime use my chair as a step-down.
It took a few moments, but it eventually dawned on him. "Hey, wait a minute!"
"If you need us we'll be in your sister's old room," I called behind me.
"Sara Lucas, you get back---!"
"Feel free to reheat my coffee," I replied from the stairs, "you might need it."
g2 - highly enjoyable dialogue there. And I have to say I'm growing quite fond of Ime!
I like your poem CL. Everyone did such cool work here is my take:
Isolation
Alone with my machine
I have never known fear
Until this blank screen
Became terribly clear
Aaron - nicely done to carry along the tension from the last post. Honestly can't wait to see how you end this!
everything opened wide
feels so closed in
alone in space
with only my breath as wind
Summer - hello and welcome to the blog!
Thanks for sharing this poem with us. I especially like your final two lines - they pack a big punch.
I hope to see more writing from you here.
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