April 20, 2016 - Vijaya Sundaram

Apr 20, 2016 Free Verse, NaPoWriMo, Original Poetry

En Route to Toronto
©April 20th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

She flies along, skimming surfaces
With eel-ease, flowing through air
Purring now, growling at times,
This Traveler, swift as a swallow,
Carrying travelers, still as stone.
Companionable and old she is, but proud,
Unwilling to give up the ghost,
Nursed along by stubbornness.

The star-cradle bends low
As we fly horizon-wards
In a sunless space pierced by eyes
Streaming light –unblinking, lidless.
We converse about times past and present,
Of medieval castles and modern dwellings in cities and towns
Where the great Hum of humanity
Makes a song too passing strange to comprehend.

And we make the great Mother keen
While we ride her scarred body,
Criss-crossing her veins.
Our innocent Traveller – she, who
Drinks the ancient blood
Of dead Titans struck down in their prime
Along with the rest of her ilk –
Hums along absently, as she
Brings the slow, ineluctable
Collapse of all we know.

… Still, we like driving to Toronto.

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(I wrote this IN the car, on the way to Toronto — wrote it on my phone, at 11:31 p.m. Please forgive any lapse of language or imagination!)

In response to the NaPoWriMo prompt for Day 20:

And finally, our prompt (optional, as always)! Today’s prompt comes to us from Vince Gotera, who suggests a prompt very much in keeping with our poet in translation, a “kenning” poem. Kennings were riddle-like metaphors used in the Norse sagas. Basically, they are ways of calling something not by its actual name, but by a sort of clever, off-kilter description — for example, the sea would be called the “whale road.” Today, I challenge you to think of a single thing or person (a house, your grandmother, etc), and then write a poem that consists of kenning-like descriptions of that thing or person. For example, you might call a cat a mouse-stalker, quiet-walker, bird-warner, purr-former, etc. If you’re looking for examples, you can find one that Vince wrote here and a different example here. Happy writing!

Tags: #kenning-poem, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram

MagPied Piper! (Video and Dialogue)

Apr 20, 2016 Daily Life, Ramblings and Musings

MagPied Piper!
(Video from YouTube, dialogue by me)
April 20th, 2016
Vijaya Sundaram

“Why upside down?”

“It’s cool. Bats do it. I just wanna hang like them. Come, hang out with me!”

“I don’t know, man! All this is too outré for me!”

“I think I like being right side up. It’s the right orientation for me.”

“All this talk of orientation! Pooh!”

“Hey! Are you that kind of magpie?”

“Whoa, Pica pica, yourself, mate!”

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Tags: #Dialogue, #YouTubeMagPie

Demon-Town

Apr 20, 2016 Friday Fictioneers, Original Short Story, Uncategorized

Word Count: 100 words of text, exactly
Genre: Fairy tale? Demon-Tale!

Demon-Town
©April 20th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

I can’t take anymore, sighed Hans.

He’d been walking the fence for twenty minutes, trying to find a gap. THEY had segregated him, his family, and town, for unknown reasons.

Psst! came a voice from a tree beyond the fence.

Peering out, a young demon grinned wickedly, and said, Sell me your soul; I’ll let you all go free.

“Why?” asked Hans, incredulous.

I’m not paid enough for this. I need a soul. I’m hungry. Yours looks delicious.

Hans thought, If this is a hallucination, so be it.

By the time he breathed, “Okay,” the maw of darkness engulfed him.

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Thanks, always, to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, Fairy Blog-Mother, powerful story-weaver, and of Friday Fictioneers, and to Madison Woods (whose url I could not find) for the photo-prompt.
P.S. I wanted to write something about the Holocaust, but since Rochelle already wrote one, I thought, Head to fantasy world!

P.P.S. I’ll be travelling by car later this evening (to Toronto), and will not be able to visit any sites until tomorrow evening (we’re stopping on the way). Running around, getting things ready. I look forward to reading everyone’s stories.

Tags: #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram

Questions For A New Odysseus

Apr 20, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry

Questions For A New Odysseus
©April 20th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

All those years ago
Before you were ashes and dust
Before that muddy river bore you
Downstream, before more loss,
Before returning to mundane life,
Did you fall in love?

Did you see a demure golden lady
Perfect and pretty, full of
Doe-eyed allure, swing
Into your irregular orbit?
Did you fall in love or lust?
Did you remember your wife?
Did you remember your child?

Did you fling caution to the winds?
Did you say, “I’m damned anyway,
Might as well give in. My life
Brought some joy, but now
All is pain. I shall surrender –
My flesh is willing, my soul sore.
I need some love.”

And if you did, did it bring
Some joy, some peace, some
Shutting out of remembered loss?
Was there quiet oblivion,
A slow blotting, an erasure
An obliteration?
Did it all scatter like
Dandelion seeds on a
Wayward wind?

If it did, I am glad for you.
But if it did, why return?

And if you did resist, I hope
It brought you satisfaction.
And I hope your return home
Was worth it in the end,
Despite all the gods’ conniving
To fell you in your prime,
Despite all the storm-tossed
Terrors, the betrayals of friends,
The endless suffering you wrought
For yourself and others.

And I am glad for you that you
Came home, and I cannot imagine
How you survived it all.

So broken, so brave,
So ambiguous, so good
So full of doubt,
So full of faith,
So full of wanderlust
So full of homesickness
So full of unfulfilled dreams
So full of familial love
To enfold you, and hold
You until the day
You passed away.