Mar 12, 2016 Original Flash Fiction, The Daily Post

My second response to The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt: Misstep

Regret and Reach
©March 12th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

Somewhere, in the course of her days, she made a blunder.  She misheard.  She misunderstood.    She misspoke.  She mistook. 

She missed a step.  It might have been the thirteenth one.  Empty space loomed between it and the fourteenth step. 

She took a deep breath, and reached for it.

The twelfth step below her receded.  The thirteenth vanished.  The fourteenth loomed.

One more day, one more year, many more years.

She spent a year in the space where the missed step was, cocooned in a state of regret.  She space-walked through time.  Then, she reached that fourteenth step.

Now, when she looks back, she cannot remember any of the details.  All she knows is she chases after the shining truth, and turns her back to deceit.  She hacks her way through to the heart of goodness, and sees right into the heart of evil.  She will not be fazed by it.

And she walks with a step that will not falter.

But there are days, when she mishears, and misunderstands, and quails.  She avoids that misstep, that thirteenth step, and flies upwards towards that fourteenth one with the ease and grace of a trapeze artist.

And catches the hand that reaches down to her before they both flip upwards, and fly through the air.

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Tags: #Misstep

Mar 12, 2016 Senryu, The Daily Post

For The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt:  Misstep

Missed Step and Hidden Moon
(Four Senryu)
©March 12th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

Miss, please watch your step!
She makes a misstep, hurtles,
Floating, feather-light.

So easy to see
Now, floating above the earth
So sweet it all was

All the faults, the flaws
Their beauty, his joys, her pain,
Complex chords in songs.

Leaves that float downward
Look too much like autumn tears
The moon hides her face.

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Tags: #Misstep, #Original Poetry