Scorch Marks: Prose Poem

Thursday Hybrid Prompt: pictures of pain

Invalid fire poised on precipice of the poem — the searing journal casting long rays over short pages — staggering the drag-limp fixture returns unannounced to cripple days of being mostly kind of sort of facing the inclement sparks — tardy translations — so much ash in all the gaps —

where are you going though? — making it from the living room to the kitchen requires a chart a special match to get the internal combustion revving enough to scale the 14 steps of Hel and the handbasket that comes with it — carrying too much too much in the way of escape but leaving the site is imperative — for the moment —

plagiarism marks burning dysfunction open-heart anti-anesthesia and the sensations that do return — another fiery dawn waking but buried in blued eyes that stumble to the chaise that start down the stairs only to hop back up into recline — without much energy —

dysmorphic attention — who the fuck is this — and the temptation to falter becomes the m.o. for the day — timing the world by the next nap even when nothing happens in between — nothing…

J.D. Harms 2022

Prompt:

I hope you’ll forgive yet another poem geared towards pain. ’Tis a frequent inspiration, though, when one has a chronic condition.

Even treated, even managed through attempts at healthier existence, vitamins, Omega 3–6–9, et al, there’s nothing that takes it all away…you know, except that bitter end I ain’t racing towards.

While pain is a universal human experience (indeed, without it the great Utilitarian philosophers wouldn’t have been able to formulate their hedonic calculus), it’s also a deeply subjective one. In other words, my experiences of sparks and burning and shooting pain from exposed nerve endings brings specific images/sensations to mind; you might experience these things differently.

It is, for all that, a source of some pretty spectacular images. Or, can be. Even if it’s only short in duration, we’ve all experienced pain of some sort. Taking pain as your starting point, write a hybrid/prose poem that develops an image out of your experience. Remember to tag me in it, and rock on, write on!

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