From Cafe Writing's July-August Project:

Option Two: Pick Three

Pick at least three of the following eight words, and write a paragraph, scene, flash-fic, essay, blog entry, or poem using them. It's fine to change tenses, or pluralize if you want to, but please bold the words you choose.

talk, belong, victory, destiny, plain, strong, rules, dear

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Photo by Shadow becomes White (with my photo edits).
Poem inspired by Red Bull Art of Can.
About the poem -- Read my journal entry here.



Azure Flight

It's when I'm ready to talk
is when I don't know what to say

[you go] first
or what social cues to pick up on

but a poker face
bobbing above a fan of cards
that promises (black and) red hearts
and untold destinies, legends

that had been blessed by deities
and unchosen by heroes before me
because their hands, their crafts
were different
from my own.


It's when I'm ready to write
is when I don't know what to write about

or what direction to go to
but in circles

like metallic birds
and butterflies fluttering around
and around a feeder

fueling their unstoppable wings,
humming to some inner song
from the tube of a flower
that is desperate to be decoded
into human words
just as sweet as the nectar
it produces.


It's when I'm ready to belong
is when I don't know where I should be

in this world
or what I should invest my heart in
but to hesitate and linger

before the threshold
of what is to come
and go,
tracing the days and years out
with my fingertips
before crumbling them into grains
of salt, sand, and ash
over and over again

until I collect at the riverbanks
and become the sum
of all human experiences.

I would then wake to find myself
molded into the starry heavens
where time is irrelevant,
measureless,
flickering over existence
like the watchful eyes of a guardian angel.