Prose Poem
She Might Be Trapped
Hybrid prose poem & prompt response
How much did her body miss
with her face planted to the ground — absent
minded fingertips scurrying beneath the grimacing clouds
and a nest of terror cleaved to her back spawning critters of doubt that spread throughout the cracks of tarmac…
— The mind
blots segments of the brain
that go for too long unattained —
though
perhaps the birds still carry her call to heights she cannot see for fear of falling from the spine of a red pine tree — needles prickling her skin on the descent — awakening her just enough to land flat on her feet, neck poised and ready to strum the harpsichord of her ill content
or
will she plunge deeper still into an underworld where there is that ephemeral humming that builds in tantalizing whispers — scored to the maniacal metronome of time — as she writhes within the tangled roots of rationing the reasons why not to rise up again
Breathe & Be Still ©2023
I pulled from 2 sources of inspiration for this poem. The first 2 stanzas were a direct response to J.D. Harms prompt: speaking of Carter. JD prompted us to work with the following quote from Angela Carter:
She was like a piano in a country where everybody has had their hands cut off — Angela Carter, “Black Venus”
and the 2nd source is Paroma Sen’s prompt in which she directed us to work with the image below. To me this image reminded me of Rorschach Ink Blots and inspired the 3rd stanza in my poem.
Thanks to the entire Scrittura team for keeping the creative gears turning and maintaining the provocative flare we writers feast upon.
