Friday
First, consider the following poem by Anne Sexton.
The Moss of His Skin
Young girls in old Arabia were often buried alive next to their dead fathers, apparently as sacrifice to the goddesses of the tribes...
--Harold Felderman, "Children of the Desert,+ Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Review, Fall 1958.
It was only important
to smile and hold still
to lie down beside him
and to rest awhile,
to be folded up together
as if we were silk,
to sink from the eyes of mother
and not to talk.
The black room took us
like a cave or a mouth
or an indoor belly.
I held my breath
and daddy was there,
his thumbs, his fat skull,
his teeth, his hair growing
like a field or a shawl.
I lay by the moss
of his skin until
it grew strange. My sisters
will never know that I fall
out of myself and pretend
that Allah will not see
how I hold my daddy
like an old stone tree.
from Jessica Helfand's "Anne Sexton's Scrapbook"
Now, using at least ten (but as many as you can) words (good ones, not "the," "of," "an," etc.) from this poem, write a piece [flash fiction] about a daddy and daughter doing something you wouldn't expect a daddy and daughter to do.
<500 wds.
From Randall Brown
July 29, 2009 at 6:39 am
Nicely done, Annemarie. I especially like the moss colored shadow and that ending with “It’s like she’s still around.” I wonder if that might make a cool title, that final line, and end with “…over tea.” Just a thought, maybe a silly one. I enjoyed reading this!
From Beth Thomas
August 21, 2009 at 10:48 am
I worked to this prompt once before (prompted by you, then). The resulting story was published in FRiGG: “On the Road to Kirkuk.”
From Randall Brown
August 23, 2009 at 9:39 am
Love that story, Beth. Here’s the link: http://www.friggmagazine.com/issuetwentytwo/poemsstories/fiction/Thomas/OntheRoad.htm
From Annemarie Bogart
October 15, 2009 at 8:43 am
Thanks Randall…It was fun to write as well 🙂