Mar 10, 2016 Flash Fiction for the Aspiring Writer
Photo prompt provided by Louise Bunting at The Storyteller’s Abode.
Word Count: 175 words of text, exactly (next time, I’ll go for 150 words!)
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Plummet
©March 10th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Rajashekhar had died six months ago. At least, they’d been childless. Both his and her parents were long-dead. She had no siblings. All very neat, she thought.
Nothing bound Lakshmi to the world.
Alone, she climbed the stairs of the ruined castle she was visiting. The wind howled through its stony crevices. The sky bled gold through the gray of grief.
She was tired of the earth. Too much gravity. She wanted to be air, wind, light. She wanted to be Soul without Body.
Humming abstractedly, she reached the top, and prepared herself, with the slightest plummeting of stomach, to do the deed. Somewhere within, she still wept, her grief an open wound.
Reaching the top, and taking a deep breath, she stepped to the edge, where a sign warned visitors to stay away.
“Um … could you help me?” said a polite English voice. She turned. It belonged to a man, with beautiful, gray eyes. “I’ve lost my glasses, and cannot read this brochure.”
She stepped back.
He smiled, and she found herself in free-fall.
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Thanks to Priceless Joy who hosts Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers!
Thanks to Louise Bunting for the evocative photo-prompt!
This is my first story here.
Tags: #Death, #FFfAW, #Life, #Love, #Original Flash Fiction, New Beginnings
Mar 10, 2016 Original Poetry, The Daily Post, Uncategorized
Legacy: A Simple Love Poem
(for The Daily Post Prompt for March 10th: Legacy)
©March 10th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Give me your heart.
I shall always be true.
I shall wind the silk
Of mine with yours
And spin a cloth
That endures.
Give me your trust.
I shall hold it close.
And build for it a room
That opens to the world
And keeps it safe
When it needs a retreat.
Give me your hand
To hold when I’m unsteady,
And, if you have need of mine,
You will have it.
The rocks are hard, and
The hills are steep,
And we have need of
A steadying hand.
Together, we shall advance
Into the sunset.
It’s beautiful sometimes,
And stormy sometimes,
And full of rich color, always.
The horizon beckons,
And night advances.
It does not scare me.
Our laughter, the music of time.
Our struggles, the drama,
Our losses, our joys
The eternal dance
With which we braid
A life together.
Love with you is all I need.
And that will be our
Legacy for our daughter
When we are gone,
And she will hold it
Close to her heart.
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Tags: #Legacy, #Love, #TheDailyPost, A Love Poem
Mar 10, 2016 Original Poetry, The Daily Post
For the March 9th Daily Prompt: Object
Objects I Didn’t Make
©March 10th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
This stone in my hand?
From the heart of a planet
Swinging through time
And shaped by space.
More sacred than some
Gift shaped by human hand
(Although I like those, too!)
This flower on the plant?
More precious than any
Plucked to celebrate my
Being on this earth.
(Although I like those, too!)
I used to love pretty things
I still love them.
But my heart is full, now.
My life, likewise.
The sands are vast,
The sea heaves gently.
There is much to gaze upon,
Together, many swells,
Many troughs.
So many mysteries
Lit by the sun!
This shell, here, now,
Is the gift of time.
These glittering bits of sand,
The gift of this world.
Take these.
I didn’t make them,
But finding them,
Binds them to us.
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Tags: #Love, #Object, #TheDailyPost, Earth and her gifts, On the day before the day before my birthday
Mar 10, 2016 The Daily Post
This is my second offering for the March 8th Daily Post prompt “Contrast.”
Choice
(Daily Prompt, Single-Word Prompt: Contrast)
©March 10th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Black is the colour* of his true love’s hair
And black’s in the heart of the racist’s stare
White is the colour of the skin he wears
And white is the colour of the black child’s prayers.
Blue is the colour of her eyes so bright
And blue is the bruise he inflicts at night
Green is the colour of Spring in the air
And green is the colour of jealousy’s glare.
Red is the colour of her lips that shine
And red is the colour of the rage that blinds
Yellow is the heart of a rose so sweet
And yellow the fever of cowards’ deceit
Brown is the colour of earth’s sweet grace
And brown are the shirts of those who deface
Purple is the pomp and power of wealth
And purple the heather so full of health.
Opposites, and contrasts are all of these
Choose not the stains, but colors that please.
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* All these years, I used the American spelling “color,” because I taught in a public school. Now, that I am retired, I am reverting to my Indian/English “correct” spelling of “Colour.”
🙂
(Yes, correct is a relative term, but I’ll go with English spelling!)
And yes, my first line is a reference to the traditional Scottish (later Appalachian) folk song, “Black is the Colour of My True Love’s Hair.” Here’s a haunting version by Nina Simone:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJRh7PSaOzI
Here is a moving version by the incomparable Pete Seeger:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIx_9deq4Nw
Tags: #OneWordPrompt, #Original Poetry, #TheDailyPost, Choice, Contrast