The Flash That Lit Your Face

13 January 2021 Wednesday Prose Poem Prompt: speechless

I wanted to say something brilliant, something that would have framed everything just right; I’ve got this headache now, never completely washing itself away. You scrub at it. Beneath the brighter lanterns than what I’m used to, I try to see beyond my own skull. Writhing circumstances and crazed laughter.

Just as the flash lit up your face, it burns now in the back of my retina, and red-rimmed grief comes to the fore, demands ends to certain problems. I’ve nothing to compare it to. I’ve no recourse to sound and silent oppositions are stalking through the gardens barely lit up by the stars. I just know, but I don’t want to know, that there’s holes that I’ll sink into before I’ve made it back indoors.

I wanted to speak. I wanted to say something. Not to just sit here and compose something that has the death of a few seeds about it.

J.D. Harms 2021

Prompt:

Today’s prose poem prompt, speechless, may perhaps be slightly odd since we’re supposed to have (as writers, essentially) unfettered access to words. Perhaps this prompt is inspired by my reading 1984 at the moment. You can reveal a situation that has something of the totalitarian about it, an oppressive outside authority monitoring your words. You could do something similar to what I’ve done and examine a moment in a relationship that could begin/end with speechlessness. Tag me in it (J.D. Harms) Be ekphrastic, be emotional, so long as it’s in a prose poem format! Rock on, write on.

Evan Wildstein Viraji Ogodapola janny’s heart Nathaniel Laydon Matthew Leo Ben Murphy Wilfreda Edward Enne Baker Connie Song Karen L. Jones Kristie Darling Mary Jones Upen Singh Nikhil Maziar Ghaderi Aspen Blue Mahnoor Chaudhry Barry Dawson IV Lola Sense Lori Lamothe MDSHall Bradon Matthews Ian Cunnold Patrick M. Ohana Amy Jasek Zay Pareltheon Eli Snow Jessica Lee McMillan Ema Dumitru Kristen v.H. Middleton Iva Hotko Hannah Dziura Janaka Stagnaro Joseph Lieungh Joseph Coco Samantha Lazar Paroma Sen Mimi Bordeaux Jasmine Abbi. Sydney Duke Richey Sydney J. Shipp Camille Fairbanks Kevin E. Pittack Jr. Georgia Lewitt Louis Dennis Lowell Woluchem Imad Vera Hadzic Dennett Jay Sizemore Charlotte Allan Victoria Ponte Carolyn Riker Samuel Clarke Gurpreet Dhariwal Dermott Hayes Dr. Jackie Greenwood Ray Lobo Rosy Rane Qalam Dana Sanford Suntonu Bhadra Suzanne V. Tanner Johanna Geary Joanna Vang Tre L. Loadholt Jenine Bsharah Baines Josie Elbiry AK (Aaska Aejaz) Johannes Mudi Ana-Maria Schweitzer Ann Marie Steele Kim Cullen Sarah E Sturgis Simran Kankas C.J. Obikile Ronald Mathew Gerardo Rene Paz Rhonda Marrone Aaron Quist Mohan Boone Angelina Der Arakelian Amanda Dalmas Daniel A. Teo Kira Dawn Gaston King Alex Guenther Rebecca Ruth Gould Laura Misener Akhtar Mehmood Andrea Juillerat-Olvera