It's still sitting there. The last one, you said. One last one before I go. I couldn't stop watching you, your fingers, so long, your nails always jagged. You didn't look at me while you smoked You looked at the garden. at the broken bricks. At the umbrella I had tied to the table. I wanted to tie you to the table too. But I just stood, over by the swing and watched. In the shadow of your suitcase the grass was a darker shade of green. I wondered if you still thought that the grass would always be greener somewhere else. Your lighter, the one I gave you last year for your birthday, now left along side the ashtray. Like me, forgotten. Still there. You didn't even finish it. I think you couldn't stand to be watched. It was like when wee made love the first time, you kept telling me to close my eyes. But all I wanted to do, all I ever wanted to do, was drink you in. To watch the sunlight in your hair or the look of peace when you came, or even the delicate way you smoked that last one. The last one before you left.
The scars of my sins stain my soul, seared in as permanently as the blood on Lady MacBeth’s hands. Oh, that my own sins might have been as nobly motivated as hers. I cannot scorn the motives of any who sin from motive, for my own sins are motivated by the simplest desire to dispatch from my presence those who annoy me.
But this, this is impossible.
Every man from whose throat I have drained blood . . . Every woman from whose chest I have carved a chunk of beating heart . . . Everyone whose braincase I have rendered flat . . . They never
ever
ever
go away.
Their spirits flit about every candle I light. Their phantoms crouch in every dark corner by which I pass. Their souls inhabit the very smoke of my cigarettes. They are attached to me with such ferocity that they might never be removed. Clinging to me. Calling to me. Crying out to me. The din of my inquity.
RJ Clarken's first YA novel PENNY WISHES was published by Lilley Press in 2009. She is also the author of a quirky, offbeat collection of humorous poetry, MUGGING FOR THE CAMERA. She lives in NJ with her husband, son and daughter (twins!) and her crazy Cairn terrier.
Casey McCormick is an aspiring YA writer and active blogger. She lives in California with her husband, two young children, and a lazy coonhound named Trever.
Michael Grove is a new addition to Flashy Fiction and will offer his slant on Wednesdays. Welcome aboard Mike!
Walt Wojtanik -- Thursday
Walt Wojtanik's poetry collection WOOD was released in 2011. His second collection, I AM SANTA CLAUS will be released later in 2012. He has written and staged three plays, and is a musician. Walt lives in NY, is married with two daughters.
Hannah Gosselin is a free spirit and beautiful soul blessed with a poet's heart and photographer's eye. She is perpetually inspired by love shared with her husband and their two young sons and is awestruck by beauty in nature. She enjoys indulging in heart-work: writing, dance and visual arts. Hannah was awarded a diploma by the Institute of Children’s Literature located in West Redding, Connecticut, for the successful completion of the course: “Writing for Children and Teenagers,” on April, 19th, 2010.
HANNAH'S BLOG
Deb Markanton -- Saturday
Deb Markanton is an aspiring YA & MG writer currently hard at work coaxing the stories in her head to play on paper. She lives in Los Angeles with her two dogs, Maddy and Mugsie.
Visit her blog to see what bit of nonsense has inspired her today.
De and Laurie -- Sunday Sisters
De Miller Jackson is half of our Sunday team we call "Sunday Sisters". She wanted to be a Poet-Pirate-Princess when she grew up, but is (mostly) happily settling into the role of Mom/Freelance Writer. (Some days that slash cuts deeper than others.) She writes advertising copy, runs gleefully with scissors, plays well with poems…and has also penned a couple of children’s books that need a little magic fairy dust to find illustrator and publisher. You can read her stuff at whimsygizmo.wordpress.com.
Laurie Kolp is the other half of our Sunday tandem. She is a mother of six (including husband and two dogs)and maintains three blogs with numerous publications to her credit which includes most recently Chicken Soup for the Soul: Devotional Stories for Tough Times, The Dead Mule’s School Society of Southern Literature, Christmas Miracles, The Christian Communicator, Skive Magazine. Her poem Infatuation will be published in an upcoming issue of Writer’s Digest Magazine.
It's still sitting there.
ReplyDeleteThe last one, you said. One last one before I go.
I couldn't stop watching you, your fingers, so long, your nails always jagged.
You didn't look at me while you smoked You looked at the garden. at the broken bricks. At the umbrella I had tied to the table.
I wanted to tie you to the table too.
But I just stood, over by the swing and watched. In the shadow of your suitcase the grass was a darker shade of green. I wondered if you still thought that the grass would always be greener somewhere else.
Your lighter, the one I gave you last year for your birthday, now left along side the ashtray. Like me, forgotten. Still there.
You didn't even finish it.
I think you couldn't stand to be watched. It was like when wee made love the first time, you kept telling me to close my eyes.
But all I wanted to do, all I ever wanted to do, was drink you in. To watch the sunlight in your hair or the look of peace when you came, or even the delicate way you smoked that last one.
The last one before you left.
Nice job, Kay!
ReplyDeleteThe scars of my sins stain my soul, seared in as permanently as the blood on Lady MacBeth’s hands. Oh, that my own sins might have been as nobly motivated as hers. I cannot scorn the motives of any who sin from motive, for my own sins are motivated by the simplest desire to dispatch from my presence those who annoy me.
ReplyDeleteBut this, this is impossible.
Every man from whose throat I have drained blood . . . Every woman from whose chest I have carved a chunk of beating heart . . . Everyone whose braincase I have rendered flat . . . They never
ever
ever
go away.
Their spirits flit about every candle I light. Their phantoms crouch in every dark corner by which I pass. Their souls inhabit the very smoke of my cigarettes. They are attached to me with such ferocity that they might never be removed. Clinging to me. Calling to me. Crying out to me. The din of my inquity.