We begin the week by writing about: the civil war.
Non-capitalized in order to provide more freedom of interpretation. I'm obviously in a kind mood, so feel free to take advantage.
The sun was quite inconsistent today, which didn't encourage me to venture very far from home with my camera. Hopefully I'll get a cloudless morning or afternoon this week that allows for more exploration.
In the meantime: thankfully I didn't need to go very far in order to capture this family photo:
Any day now there will be a rather different family picture to share.
Mine:
In a room lit by candles,
With lightly scented air,
The elders speak in hushed tones
While pulling out their hair.
The war has turned against them,
Despite their well-laid plans.
They are desperate for a way
To save their well-loved lands.
As culture crumbles to dust
And manners are cast out,
They worry for our future,
Our survival is in doubt.
Their foes have strength in numbers
But their IQs are low.
Yet they seem so appealing
In that bleak cell phone glow.
The elders won't stop fighting
Against these cocky teens.
Though perhaps it would help them
If they knew what LOL means.
marc, amazing, i was thinking about the civil war today! can't think of anything right now tho.
ReplyDeletelovely pix, not long now for kat, eh!
I am sneaking around this morning trying not to wake the demon spawn, had to do some searching to find the site on a different computer, one get complacent when everything is in favourites. Your poem was awesome, the last line just nailed the whole thing. Great job.
ReplyDeleteIron Bess
I'm not doing NaNoWriMo, but I do have a novel in progress. Today's prompt inspired me to write about 2 of the main characters, 2-3 years in the future from where they are right now in the novel. (Background: Katherine is a fully qualified doctor working as assistant to Andrew, also a fully qualified doctor. They've been working together since 1907, and they got married a year or so before this scene, which takes place in 1910 or so.)
ReplyDelete----------------
Katherine slammed the coffee cups down on the table and pushed one across to Andrew.
"Of course I'm angry with you," she snarled as she sat down to gulp at her coffee. "You're blaming me, again, for being a woman. First you didn't want to hire me. Then you didn't want to marry me. Sometimes I think you blame me for you falling in love with me. And now you blame me for getting pregnant. Well, you had as much to do with it as I did. And, no, I won't stop working and leave you in the lurch. And if you try to force me, I shall leave you, find work somewhere else, and see how you like working alone again!"
Andrew sat impassively through her tirade, sipping his coffee and trying to ignore the muscle jumping in his left temple.
Beautiful picture, I think Kat definitely steals the show there!
ReplyDeleteHeh, I knew at the fourth line that your poem was going to have a punchline, and it delivered nicely. There's some really good atmosphere building throughout the poem, and I like the descriptions of the elders in your fairly elliptic style.
Good work!
The civil war
"Mavis? You've not spoken to me in fourteen days."
"..."
"Please Mavis? I know you're upset with me, but it was an accident. I told you the email wasn't supposed to go to you, and you did say that you won your bridge game."
"..."
"Well ok, I guess I shouldn't have shown you the pictures of the, well, let's just say machine."
"..."
"Ok, ok, but I really did mix the pictures up. I was trying to send you the ones without me testing it out."
"..."
"It was a birthday present Mavis! You have to check they work properly before you give them to people, especially when they're so expensive!"
"..."
"Mavis?"
"..."
"Mavis, did you put correction fluid in my coffee instead of milk?"
"..."
"Does this mean war, Mavis? Only, it's very quiet, and polite if it is."
"..."
"Oh. It's a civil war then."
Writebite - no, I guess it wasn't long at all :D
ReplyDeleteIron Bess - thanks very much!
And I know exactly what you mean. Whenever I lose a computer to a crash, I spend days trying to remember all the sites I had bookmarked.
Morganna - that's very cool that the prompt inspired something like that!
I love that you were able to convey so much of each character with such a short snippet of dialogue. That's well done :)
Greg - thanks :)
Hahaha, my goodness. So much expressed with only half a conversation to work with. Particularly enjoyed the 'testing' portion :D