parables

[parables]

Day 26. Broken Lightweight

A recipe for an early night:

A single, empty glass Face greeting the table Raucous snores Exasperated friends

Goodnight.

#100daychallenge #day 26 #broken #lightweight #finally caught up again #goodnight #may 14 2016

[parables]

Day 25. Graceful Beam

Stood on a single toe in brazen defiance of gravity,  You will leap Knowing the loyal beam will catch you Before the ground swallows your balance.

#100daychallenge #day 25 #graceful #beam #may 13 2016 #friday the 13th #spoopy

[parables]

Day 12. Drunk Hum

Dad sings all the time, everywhere. Beatles in the backyard Denver at dinner Phantom of the Opera in the shower. Melodies that have woven his image into my youth.

It is only flush from drink, That he sings unfamiliar, foreign songs - Sometimes in a sharper language than his mother tongue -  About lost homes and parents left behind And old memories of friends whose names are only words to him now. Melodies of his own youth that he has rewoven With such delicate care.

#100daychallenge #day 12 #drunk #hum #may 12 2016

[parables]

Day 23. Haunted Spring

The spring in the wood carries voices in its gurgles.  Sometimes they murmur, Sometimes they shriek, Always, they fade.

They say if you stand in their waters, the voices will share their secrets, Divulge their histories. They say if you stand in their waters, they will reveal themselves. Slowly, from the smooth, clear depths, Long hair, a flashing tail And rows upon rows of sharp, twisted, stained teeth.

If you stay too long, it will your your voice that rings across the ripples.

#100daychallenge #day 23 #haunted #spring #may 11 2016

[parables]

Day 22. Fake Rogue

Midnight. 

The fully moon showers through the window. The house creaks gently against the frigidness of the outdoors but is otherwise silent. All is still.

Suddenly - a footstep. Too soft, too careful to be a regular inhabitant. 

A large form moves through darkened hallways with cautious purpose. Freezing at any hint of sound, but steadfast in his mission. He is dressed for the weather.

He creeps through the living room, eyeing the mantle and its finery as he passes, but this is not what he wants. He comes to a stop the coffee table where someone has forgotten a plate of pastries. His stomach rumbles loudly, stark in the silence - it’s been hours since his last warm meal. 

He extends a mitten-clad hand and snatches the cookie up, nearly snarling as he wolfs it down. 

Satisfied for the moment, he returns to his purpose: a large, decorated tree adorning the center of the room.

With a jolly huff, he sets to work.

#100daychallenge #day 22 #fake #rogue #May 10 2016

[parables]

Day 21. Baptized Night

The pull of mother moon washes salty waves over the soft sand, to be greedily absorbed by its parched grains. The tidal cleansing will sooth the burn of day and grant cool new life to tomorrow’s shore.

#100daychallenge #day 21 #baptized #night #may 9 2016

[parables]

Day 20. Enormous Earth

We are as ants to the moon Dust to the sun. What careless wind shapes the distance of life to death As we grasp at slippery meaning.

#100daychallenge #day 20 #enormous #earth #May 8 2016

[parables]

Day 19. Looming Balance

Tentative toes peek over the edge of a great chasm. As weight shifts, the first thoughts begin their descent.

#100daychallenge #day 19 #looming #balance #May 7 2016

[parables]

Day 18. Lazy Pyramid

The Pyramid and the Sphinx were old friends, having weathered the years and dynasties together. They watched the tiny men scamper back and forth, frantically building and destroying, eager to make their mark on the ancient world before their short lives extinguished. The Pyramid and the Sphinx watched the sands give way to cities, the cities give way to rubble, the rubble give way to sand. Each century, the Sun, and entity even greater and older than they, rose in the east and set in the west, far away beyond their shadows.

The Sun greeted the two old friends as usual in a century when the sands prevailed and the tiny men were beginning their habitual scramble. These men came with small boxes which carried them much faster across the sands than their usual caravans. The men brought tiny white huts and flitted about, in and out, making tiny plans. The Pyramid and the Sphinx mused long together on the curious activity and laughed slowly at the antics. Perhaps a cycle of building had fallen upon them again.

Days whisked by while the friends gazed upon the scrambling men and their hasty plans with great amusement. This was the closet the tiny beings had dared come in a brief while, and they were more brazen than ever - even going as far as making attempts to climb their watchful companions. The men built ladders from fragile sticks and tickled their way up and up, which the two found uproariously entertaining. They could scarcely contain their rumbling laughter, afraid to dislodge their new guests.

Such audacious little things. It was only a matter of time, really before they damaged something in their careless fun - this is what the Pyramid tried to reassure the Sphinx as they took in the new scratches and chips. Thoughtless ants, the Sphinx replied with a scoff, but she was mollified for a time.

That time was brief - new chips were added daily. The scratches became gashes along the Sphinx’s sides. The friends could only conclude mournfully that these were deliberate. 

How will I face the eastern Sun like this, she grumbled at night. 

You’ll do it as you do every morning, he answered sagely, though his stones quivered anxiously.

The eastern Sun, of course, mentioned nothing and was as unfailingly kind as ever, only noting mildly that their brood of little men seemed to double by the day. 

To the friends’ dismay, this seemed to be true. More and more white tents sprouted from the sand, so that the dunes were awash in a white sea of fluttering canvas. The two kept their worry at bay, however, for a few knocks and dings aside, they were relatively unharmed - 

- of course, until this changed as well.

The sharp crack shocked the two awake one night, under the helpless eyes of the Moon. Shock gave way to horror as they realized - the Sphinx’s delicate head had been shorn in two. The pyramid took in the new jagged edge that cut across the fine slopes of her moonlit face, unable to speak.

The Sphinx said nothing for a long time and released only a soft - oh - before falling into a deep and unwavering silence. Nothing could provoke even the shortest of words from her, and after a time, the Pyramid gave up.

The next years passed like this.

Piece by piece, the tiny men tore at her with their ever-growing arsenal of sharpened tools. They bit unflinchingly into her soft stone and cracked her foundations wide. Bit by bit, they took her away, to the place behind their shadows, beyond the Pyramid’s sight and beyond the sand’s influence. There was no goodbye. Her mouth was one of the first pieces to go. 

Bit by bit, she went, until all that was left was her solid base, marked as though a grave amid the sad sands. 

Her old friend and the sand are old companions now. They weather the years and dynasties together, watching tiny men scamper across the dunes. 

#100daychallenge #day 18 #lazy #pyramid #may 6 2016

[parables]

Day 17. First Wisp

The dusky world at 5:15 a.m. is dust Filtered through grey trees Just beginning their morning stretch. First light is always tentative And easily frightened, So the land stands hushed While the first ribbons stretch out to greet the clouds.

#100daychallenge #day 17 #first #wisp #I'd like to thank Starbucks wifi #May 5 2016

[parables]

Day 16. Mended Shroud

In this room, the morning peeks curiously through the curtains, Shedding tentative light on the dusty inhabitants:

Empty bed, empty chair, cluttered desk, empty shoes. Flung over the nightstand: a half-mended blanket. Torn cleanly at the seam, Loving hands have begun the process of healing the wound.

The air lies dormant. The clocks sit frozen.

Flung over the nightstand in dusty snapshot: A half-mended blanket.

#100daychallenge #day 16 #mended #shroud #May 4 2016

[parables]

Day 15. Opinionated Chameleon

You take our secrets with you with hooded eyes and a veil over your smile. Your words in friendly accord with ours, But the cogs in your duplicitous mind spin to a different song.

#100daychallenge #day 15 #opinionated #chameleon #May 3 2016

[parables]

Day 14. Simpering Princess

Coyly draped hair over slim shoulder, Long fingers with unbroken nails, Grace in step, curving in dance, Roses bloom in the cheeks and set fire to sharp eyes.

She is beautiful -  The knowledge of it drips from the tatters of her smile.

#100daychallenge #day 14 #simpering #princess #May 2 2016

[parables]

Day 13. Sprinkled Butter Roll

Fluffy golden treat Filled with savory richness Sprinkled butter roll.

#100daychallenge #day 13 #sprinkled butter roll #actually wat #haiku yay #May 1 2016 #it's Mexican month at Souplantation

[parables]

Day 12: Fleeting Shelter

Childhood was a gentle painting sat atop a sturdy easel. We took in the colors of home and play and laughter, Absorbed into our canvas imprints of love and happiness. We were full and it shone through our glass eyes like the sun. This - to be chipped away as harsher strokes take to our sensitive skins, As the gleam of innocence dims under the true sun. We took to our joys as moths, Unknowingly building our future regrets.

#100daychallenge #day 12 #fleeting #shelter #meh about this one #April 30 2016 #behind again #blame Sun God

[parables]

Day 11. Frank Agriculture

Grandmother grew vegetables in her yard.  We labeled them one day, together (I was learning colors at the time). That year, we plucked “RED” from prickly vines And fed crunchy “ORANGE” to our rabbit.

This year’s is a different harvest. Red no longer sits plump against green stem, Orange has been left to rot in the dirt.

I am still learning her colors.

I rename them myself now, those vegetables, Breathe life anew into their soil, Coax her touch into her garden, That I may grow again.

#100daychallenge #day 11 #frank #agriculture #my dad's name is frank #nainai didn't actually have a garden #April 29 2016

[parables]

Day 10. Nomadic Support

The desert stretches long before you, its dunes rolling farther than you can see past your flinching eyes. The sun burns - your skin, your breath. You have been on this path only a few days and you are unused to the hardship. Your animal knows survival here better than you. 

You break for food early today - the sun’s hell-fire kept at bay by only the barest of cotton barriers. Your animal heaves a sigh at your weakness and collapses beside you in the shade of a particularly tall dune. You see no vegetation, no relief from the endless blaze. Weary hands find your meal and you set upon it without vigor.

Hours seem to waste away here. You: staring at nothing. The sand: wafting lazily by. The sun: watching with fierce intention. You: slowly beginning to list sideways...

You start suddenly awake to the rough tongue of your animal on your burnt face. Your bread sits forlornly at your feet, already charred by the newly heated sand there. The skin of your forehead is on fire. 

Another rough swipe of tongue at your face pushes you to your feet. Your burnt meal is to be left behind for scavengers. Unsure of how much time you have squandered while you set yourself ablaze under direct heat, you hitch your sore body atop the animal, patting it’s neck in thanks, to resume the trudge. 

The two of you stagger onward - your steady companion and you - hoof over hoof, sun after sun, an eternity across the endless, ancient ocean, on your journey to fabled oasis. 

#100daychallenge #day 10 #nomadic #support #wat #April 28 2016