Second time winner @hummingbirdff has picked this week's prompt.
It's definitely a novel one.
There's a lot you can be inspired by here: the choreography, the music, the lyrics, the feel of the dance. Don't be intimidated; there's a lot of scope here.
Stretch your writing muscles.
Stretch your writing muscles.
Have your 100 - 200 words submitted by 12:00am Friday, April 12, US EDST.
We want anything and everything: poetry, prose, fanfic, OF.
JUST GET WRITING!
Leave your entry as a comment - include your word count, and your twitter handle if you have one.
FYI - entries that exceed (or are under) the word limits will not be considered by the judge.
@magtwi78
ReplyDelete197 words.
---------------
Air-stealing. Bone-crushing. Knee-bruising. Stomach-wrenching. It is there. It’s always there. It whispers. "You can't."
I press my hands against my skin; I'm trying to untie the knot in my stomach. I shake my head. "You're lying."
It laughs, bitter and black. "Try as you may—you're mine."
"I'm not." I swallow. “You don’t own me.”
It begs to differ. We’ve had this conversation before. “You know I do.”
My breath rasps in my throat. I need air. “I’m not yours.”
It ignores me. “Yes, you are. It’s why you keep coming back.” More dark laughter. “You can’t hide from me.”
In my mind, I try to sound strong. I want to. “Just let me go.”
“You know I can never do that.”It sounds almost sad. Almost. “I’m tied to you. I’m part of you.”
“Just this once.” I’m begging. “Let me have today.”
A sigh. “Today.” The black dog lies at my feet, quiet for now. “But you know I’ll be back.”
I can breathe. If for only today, it will let me breathe. “I know.”
@sparrownotes24
ReplyDeleteWord count: 200
Lights flare, revealing our baby standing on a desert of springy, ash-blond wood. Her plump cheeks and fine, golden curls are long gone. Eyes, the colour of caramel, search me out in the crowd. A smile, nervous with anticipation, falls at the empty chair by my side. Your chair.
She’s filled with grace, certainly not gifted by us. Her flaxen hair spins around her as her willowy body moves to the music with the fluidity of water. She is strong— so, so strong.
Do you realise you have the ability to crush her? You hold her heart in your hand, and you’re squeezing it.
You’ve been too busy with our dance—a dance of avoidance. I’ve let you lead me, blindly mirroring your steps and turning my back to late nights, secretive calls, and hints of magnolia clinging to your cotton shirts—sweeter than my violets.
I’ve been hiding my heart from loneliness, but as our daughter spins under the lights, aching for her father; I harden my resolve.
I will break my heart to save hers.
I will take the lead in our dance and bring it to a close, so you don’t have to sit beside me anymore.
@violetlyte
ReplyDeleteWord count: 107
It's the way you hold me, arms strong and unyielding. I feel weightless and wrapped in love.
I know it's just a dance; a single moment in time before we part once more.
You'll stare at me across the studio, dark eyes gripping my heart like a vice, the sound of your voice choking the air from my lungs.
It's your beauty I can't take, a flawless design forged from my deepest desires and yet you keep your distance, breaking my heart one second at a time. Every moment in your presence drowns me in loneliness when all I want is for you to save me.
Gorgeous!
DeleteWord count: 190
ReplyDeleteThis thing between you and me, this dance, this masquerade, it has to stop. How long has this been going on? Eternity?
All my life I’ve disciplined myself to be independent, take care of myself, to not need anyone else. Then you show up out of nowhere and upset everything.
Your soft words, slow kisses and agonizing caresses assault me. How can you do this? What do you want?
Enough already! You’ve all but torn down my defenses. I’m tired of fighting and the lines are becoming blurred. Sometimes I forget whose side I’m supposed to be on.
I’m afraid.
Afraid you’ll win. That means I’ll lose, I think. I don’t know! I’m so confused.
What? What are you doing? Don’t! Stop! I can’t take it, I can’t resist anymore!
Oh god, you feel so good! You’re not supposed to feel so good. You’re not fighting fair.
Your arms wrap around me, your lips cover mine, your body presses against me…how can I withstand? Why am I supposed to? I…I can’t remember why.
Touch me again. Kiss me one more time. Help me forget. I need you. Let me surrender.
@Shneezles Word Count: 117
ReplyDeleteHe made me soar. He made fall, crash and burn to the ground. He made feel everything and nothing. He made me numb.
His arms which once felt like home were now a cage. I want to fly and soar, but his gaze is a shackle that keeps me grounded. I am a flightless bird, trapped, muted and broken.
He was once the one that promised to catch me when I fall. Now he is the one to push me down and leave me there.
His hands felt like silk, but his words cut more than broken glass.
Caresses, kisses and cries of love became shouts, bruises and then silence.
How long could this dance go on?
Word count: 139
ReplyDeleteTwitter handle: @AnnaLund2011
~~~~~~~~~
I am weightless, running wild with your love, spinning crazy.
Loving hard. Sighing sweet.
Wanting to be loved back.
Adoring the attention, but rising high, I become your marionette.
Down, down.
With your hands, you push me down. You bend me. Finish me. Hurt me.
Caressed, but totally controlled; this is no life, where is my soul?
I am sinking deep, and drowning inside.
This raging pain is all I can feel.
I’m hurting hard, but running slow.
To think I used to fly so well; so magnificent I used to soar.
Dying within. You are changing me.
But I am breaking.
Finding my voice, finally moving, finally managing to express my hurt, my pain, my love.
I am breaking.
Breaking free.
My all, is gone.
Weightless, held up, loved and supported, I break free.
I am finally me.
~~~~~~~~~
That is beautiful. So agonizing and then she finds freedom. Great job!
DeleteBiggest thanks to @Tiramisue84 @hummingbird and @rote_kirsche for being my closest friends and biggest supports. *deep breaths* Here goes nothing.
ReplyDeleteLet me go. You have to.
Let you go. I have to.
Stop pulling those strings. You have to.
Stop being pulled by them. I have to.
Let me exist. You have to.
Exist without you. I have to.
Hold on to me. You have always.
Hold on to you. I have always.
Sleep in her arms. You have to.
Sleep without you. I have to.
Be with her. You have to.
Be without you. I have to.
Love her. You always have.
Love her. I always have.
Be the father you can be.
Be the mother I couldn't be.
Be the brother she may never have.
Be the sister she could have had.
You’re all she has.
She’s all I've had.
Cling to you. She has to.
Cling to me. She always has.
Live with you. She has to.
Live without me. She always will.
Love you. I always have.
Love you. I always will.
---End---
Word count: 156
Twitter handle: @sri_ffn
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete@bkhchica
ReplyDeleteWord Count: 161
I should never have had you in the first place. I never should have given in and let you consume me so entirely. It’s only in secret. No one else suspects a thing.
I think I’m going to be better and get away, but you’re always there, waiting in the wings. You build me up and I’m invincible. But then you leave and I crash. The bottom is cold and hard. So uncaring.
You call to me. A curse running through my veins. I need you like I need air. I can’t be without you. And yet, look where I ended up. Torn down, broken, and in the gutter.
I feel you close and glance around. No one notices, so I let you fill me and use me once more. The same way I use you. I only feel complete with you.
But once you’re gone, that’s it. I can’t have you anymore.
Of course, that’s what I said last time.
Why? Why am I still so drawn to you? What? What is it that won't let me let you go? How? How can I set me free?
ReplyDeleteI've tried. So hard. Again and again, I've tried but to no avail. The force that keeps me tied to you is too strong for me to defy. But for the sake of the life I had pictured since I was a little kid I will try once more. Because I know. I know this is not what I wanted for myself. All this pain. All this despair. All those tears and fights. All those harsh words, said too fast. All those things I cannot take back. None of this is what I wanted. None of this is what you've promised me.
With chaste kisses you've promised me security. With whispered words you've promised me love. With slow hands you've given me confidence. Only to take it all away?
Why? Why is this so hard? How? How can a love that burned so bright, had so much potential, turn into a prison filled with so much hate?
One last time, I will try to set me free. Set us free.
It's pretty obvious that I'm doing this for the first time.
DeleteForgot the word count: 197 words. My Twitter name should pop up when you click on my name ;-)
Also, Ari, I worry about you. Don't watch things like that!
Thanks to Sri for starting the talk about this and then for Kate for not so subtly pressuring me to write a text of my own.
Twitter: @bigblueboat
ReplyDeleteWord Count: 197
***********************
The first day, I stand fidgeting and regretting getting into the skin-tight leotard.
“First lesson is to get to the platform. If at any point you get freaked, just climb back down. You will be refunded immediately. This isn't for the faint of heart. The second lesson will be to soar.” With that he turns and starts the long climb up the ladder.
Minutes pass as I continue to advance skyward. I reach the platform, and the instructor speaks up again. “To be successful, you can’t be afraid of the fall. I want you to jump, dive, or just free fall. Make sure to land on your back with your head tucked into your chest then roll to the side.” He dives, spins and twirls eventually landing on his back. I take the first step to the edge. I fly: wind pushing my hair back, arms spread wide, adrenaline rushing through me.
It has been five years since that first leap. I defy you with each completed somersault and every time I grasp my catcher’s wrists or the swinging bar. I've learned to fly without the fall.
Yet I can’t help but soar first thing every Monday.
@TiramiSue84
ReplyDeleteword count: 192
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Too many people crammed into a small room, buzzing with energy. Noises everywhere and the smell of nicotine and beer in the air.
Nothing out of the ordinary.
Until I found your face across the room. Your eyes, so green and vibrant, pierced through me: deep and deeper until they found what they longed for. So powerful, they hypnotized me. I couldn't look away.
You winked and I was enchanted. Your lips curled upward and I was done for.
That was all it took. I was yours.
It wasn't long until your sweet breath became mine and mine became yours, until lips met and the wet silk of your tongue touched mine. And more, much more.
Roaming hands on naked skin, whispered words and demands, tangled bodies reveling in passion. My sighs and your grunts becoming one, culminating into something bigger until we both were rewarded with that blissful deliciousness we'd searched for.
As my breath returned, your heavy hand caressed along my body one last time before you turned away and left. The fog cleared from my mind; your magic was gone.
The spell you had jinxed me with was broken.
Word Count: 164
ReplyDeleteNow and Then
Now and then you come around with your sugar soft kisses and blow your candy breath onto my neck. Smooth as a whisper yet hard as a knife I know my life is yours. There is nothing I can say to stop you now and nothing I want to say to stop you then. Clear as a bell, loud as a drum, you know just how to make me come undone. Begging for a blue sky you give me a lavender rose instead. But it’s only now and then; only now and then.
How can I wait forever and a day for your now and then love when I want it every damn day? When will you stop this game that you play and give me your love every single day? The way doesn’t matter the thing is the dose – administer daily or my heart will die. When will you stop this now and then play? Lover, give me your love every, every day.
133 Words
ReplyDelete@CrackedFic
***
You pull and I push and we tumble down together and yet you don’t get hurt you never get hurt but I’m brushing debris from my jeans and wrapping my wounds in gauze and taking trips to the hospital because it never stops the pulling and the pushing even though I try to pull but you never try to push you only pull god I don’t know why I do this to myself it’s not your fault it’s mine I know that much at least and of course I know how I got here and you had nothing to do with it just a catalyst really but how I do love you so and hate you much more I can’t resist your pull so I push so hard that we tumble.
So hard.
200 words
ReplyDelete@Capricorn75
I don’t know what’s harder- watching the couple onscreen become one with the music and tell a story with their bodies- or forcing myself to turn away, and concentrate on the silverware I need to finish rolling before my shift ends. Most of the TVs in here are turned to various ballgames, but one small set airs the latest episode of a dance show. This waitressing job isn’t much, but I’m able to schedule it around my classes and it supplements the meager financial aid I receive.
I get lost in the past as I roll and fold. I remember the joy found in dancing, how my body instinctively knew what to do. The ease with which I learned new routines, the way I pushed myself- physically and mentally- more than I thought possible. The excitement of competitions, the glory of the praise heaped upon me by my coaches. The possibility of where my dancing might one day take me.
The shock of losing it all. The way Mom apologized profusely; her hours had been cut back again and she could barely pay the rent and electric- much less the monthly dance fees. My first experience with heartache and loss.
117 words
ReplyDelete@BellaFlan
Newton’s Fool
Satellites are not martyrs.
We are victims of physics—
Nothing more, nothing more.
I can’t fight this centripetal force.
You don’t make me fly;
You hold me down.
Turning and turning, I know
Wandering souls lose mass,
Orbiting a most cruel sun.
Energy cannot be destroyed,
But matter? I’m crushed under your boot.
My voice is trapped in my throat,
A tiny cut and a flicker of pain
Always followed by the balm:
Soothing cold on a hot cheek.
You claw at my bones,
And I cling to you.
You glow; I can’t resist,
And I circle and circle and circle.
Shining like light from a dead star.
200 words
ReplyDelete@boomboom_jones
There are stains on my shoulder. You keep going back to him and when you come back to me you smile for a minute, but most of the time you cry for hours. Don’t do it anymore. I’m your best friend and that’s how it has to be, I get it.
Don’t love him. Love me.
So I have to tell you it’s going to be all right. I’m lying. It’s not.
Why him? What’s wrong with me?
You’re with him again tonight, after yesterday. After he laughed and made you feel small. You went back to him.
I should walk away.
I should walk away, but I can’t. You’re not small. You’re this thing that goes on and on and on, and I can’t see straight when I’m with you.
You take my comfort and my warmth. Take more. Please, take everything.
It’s 2AM and you’re knocking on my door. I let you in so you can find your spot on my couch. I grab a couple beers and listen to you tell me how awful he makes you feel. Your head’s on my shoulder and there’s that moment I think you’ll finally realize. But you won't, will you?
@SerendipitousMC
ReplyDelete196 words
She cupped her hands and lifted them as if offering her heartache up to whatever might take it, but then she realized the space between her palms wasn't big enough.
She pushed the wheelchair over to the deck that didn't have a ramp yet and stared out at the yard. The trees were graceful in the wind; they reminded her of dancers who could move in a way she never would again.
But instead of making her angry or bitter, she used the image to inspire faith in victory over her confinement. She'd take anything that gave her hope, at this point.
She saw herself gliding effortlessly across the floor, clad in her favorite color of red and pursued by a man in black who pulled her, shunted her, suppressed her. He was the injury that had beaten her physically and was now trying, relentlessly and cruelly, to rob her will. Each time, she saw herself escape from his grasp.
That was what she would always have to do: evade him. Slip away. Never let him keep his arms or hands on her. Her body was in the chair but her spirit had to keep flying.
198 words
ReplyDelete@moonlit___girl
we used to fall asleep spent, a tangled mess
of limbs and sheets
still sweaty you inside me spooning
on the small twin bed, night pouring in
through the window that you had pressed me against
an hour before
and we slept, our skin stuck together
still connected as the sun rose.
we used to hold hands rubbing fingers squeezing gently
don't let go and you’d pull me in for
a quick kiss and
then spin me around laughing, laughing as
we drove them all crazy, oblivious
in our two-seater cocoon.
we used to just kiss, lazy tongues tasting, teeth
nipping swollen lips pulling pecking wet
and warm and sweet and hot moving
to scratchy jaw and biting soft ear mouth moaning
sucking gently moving back to just kiss.
you used to slay me with one look
your eyes dark and hot and ready for
me to melt into the floor sinking down
wet and waiting and wanting and willing
you to mould me but
now
now we have grown hard and
soft and tired and busy and
stretched and cold and silent
and i sink into the floor
wet (tears)
waiting (late)
and wanting
(to just kiss)
@Deebelle1
ReplyDeleteWord Count:197
Why can’t you let me go? Why do we dance around the issues we have? Why can’t you love me the way I deserve?
Why? Just Why?
You push and pull on me like gravity and no matter how much I want to walk away from you and your false sense of comfort and home; I can’t make myself do it.
It’s not just about me… or you… or this love that I know you’re capable of, but refuse to share with me. It’s about the ache that creeps through my soul each and every time we’re apart. It traps me to you; this gravitational pull that says I can’t fly away. The pressure that surrounds us is tearing me to pieces as
I try to navigate this unconventional life of ours.
I feel like I’m drowning; sinking toward the center of the Earth.
I don’t know who I am anymore; let alone who you are, but would rescue me? Save me from falling into this hopeless despair you call love?
It all comes back to this: Do I want to be rescued and left with this questionable love?
I’m not so sure it’s worth it anymore.
103 words
ReplyDeleteIt’s devout, this dance we dance
Night after endless night
Day after depleted day
Push
Pull
Give
Take
I give
You take
Dedication.
It’s so much more than a word
It’s a way
A way of life
To be
No way to be
Really
But be just the same
Dedicated.
We’re devoted
It’s in the way I push when you pull
Give when you take
I step
sway
Bend to your every winding whim
And it’s beautiful
Bewitching
Breathtakingly so
How we move and mold
Mark our manner with method
How we maneuver one another
How you maneuver me
Never missing a beat
Dedication.
107 words
ReplyDelete@paddywagon060
Free will, I lost
The moment we touched.
Possession, you took.
Sanity, I long discarded,
Burnt up in the blazing of our skin,
Ashes flying to the wind.
Your unstoppable force, my weakness,
My fatal flaw.
Initial thrill and naive desire
Morphing into need,
Acute and searing.
Our sole common ground.
I cannot bear this dangerous game,
This dance of death.
The ultimate power you have seized
While you play me,
A conceited musician and his yielding instrument.
My own voice wilfully silenced,
Replaced by your puppeteer’s strings,
What will be left in the ruins of me,
After the fire burns out?
When you’ve had your fill?
Word count: 170
ReplyDelete@CallMePagliacci
It started simple.
A business-casual boy with a bland, beige soul.
Stable. Smart. The safe choice.
My mother approved.
But khaki is the color of camouflage.
The perfectly manicured yard and a multitude of sins.
And then it changed.
Slowly.
Not so you’d notice.
Until it was done.
Why wasn’t dinner on time?
You work all day, you deserve dinner on time.
Why wasn’t the laundry done?
Even a moron like me should be able to get the laundry done.
Broken plates. Holes in walls.
Laughter, hard and black and sharp.
It’s cruelty--a teasing cruelty, all the more evil for its playfulness.
Now the blackness is mine.
Tinges of green, purple, yellow.
Look what I made you do.
There’s nothing to be done. Nothing to do.
I should’ve known better. Shouldn’t have gotten caught in your orbit.
This is my fault.
I’m twisted up.
I’m nothing without you. Me, without you, is shit.
I know this, us, is wrong.
But I don’t... know. Know what to do.
So I stay.
@mslizabeth
ReplyDelete200 words
“This was for your own good. To remind you how good your life is. That you are privileged that I allow you to be my wife.”
Her blood ran cold at his words; her mouth dry as she attempted to ask the question she most wanted to know and feared.
“If you could just behave. I wouldn’t have had to bring her in. She was a good fill in for you. Limber, willing, obedient all week at the convention.”
She was sliding across the marble of their entry way seeking distance. The walls were closing in around her as she felt like she was suffocating under his words. There had to be an escape.
“Get that look out of your eye. You took vows, Isabella. You are nothing without me. You need me.”
Her head trying to dislodge the truth in his words. She was sure he was wrong, there had to be a way out. A better life, but when his hand closed around her face in an iron grip, she knew she’d sold her soul to this man long ago.
Her life was an act of futility, each day one closer to the ending. To peace.
Twitter: @shadesofpurple4
ReplyDeleteWord Count: 119
He leaves me; wanting him to come back but I know he holds me down. He drags me through mud as I kick and fight to get back up.
He laughs at me. I don’t know the truth. I want the truth but I don’t get it. My mind doesn’t understand. He tells half-truths. White Lies are what they are called.
He is like that happy pill everyone talks about. He takes away the pain only for just a little while then it comes back with a vengeance. Pounding harder and harder with every hit.
Being with him is painful but being without him is like I can’t breathe. Being close to him is a longing I so desire.