Tonight, I think of my younger self with eyes of endurance and focus, eyes wide and credulous. You take a handmade scroll and draw it open. For you, this evening is veiled in a fog of revelries. You tug at the gold ribbon, unwrap the printed paper. You’re reading and I’m by your side marvelling at my own work. I lose my cool though I probably never had it, or felt it once and took it held it watched it vanish again. What I don’t have within me by this age, I choose to lack. And you’re the final stranger.
Archive for the ‘Age: 31-40’ Category
Day 100
Posted in Age: 31-40, Gender: Female, Location: Arts Venue, tagged city, conversations, creative writing, gemma seltzer, literature, london, One Hundred Days To Make Me A Better Person, scroll, strangers, writing on March 10, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Day 94
Posted in Age: 31-40, Gender: Female, Location: Other, tagged city, conversations, creative writing, gemma seltzer, literature, london, One Hundred Days To Make Me A Better Person, pain au chocolate, strangers, writing on March 4, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
You tell me it won’t hurt a bit. I perch on the examination table and roll up my sleeve. Tapping at my veins, you inadvertently drop everything on the floor. Scuffling near my feet, you pick up spare needles and containers while one hand keeps the point in my arm throughout. You ask me if I’ll return to work. I will, but not before I eat a pain au chocolate and gape at the blue sky. As I leave I think, don’t speak to me: if you wish me luck, I’ll take your words and throw them out the window.
Day 90
Posted in Age: 31-40, Gender: Female, Location: Arts Venue, tagged city, conversations, creative writing, gemma seltzer, literature, london, luton, One Hundred Days To Make Me A Better Person, piano, sonata, staircase on February 28, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Your fingers grip the edges of the staircase where we stand. I nod reassuringly to you, and your look is relief or even reprieve. She’s playing a sonata, your daughter and she’s nervous. A freckled and tiny person, just a schoolgirl uncomfortable in oversized casual clothes, out of uniform. The music is soothing, clear, light, the room quiet just for her and the piano. She finishes and you applaud and you wave, and you daughter stands, looks out into the audience and raises her hand to a sturdy woman in the second row. It’s the wrong mother but close enough.
Day 86
Posted in Age: 31-40, Gender: Male, Location: Outside/Street/Park, tagged city, conversations, creative writing, gemma seltzer, literature, london, One Hundred Days To Make Me A Better Person, strangers, tube, umbrella, writing on February 24, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Umbrellas become weapons as we fight to the tube station. You elbow me as you pass and I square up, ready to fight. You say, What? I say, What? and we stare and we pause and you flick water in my eyes. I take each of my gloves, roll them together into a ball and aim at your nose. You see my arm draw back, raise an eyebrow and kick me in the knees. Today was going to be a fine day, a light day. As I lay on the ground; many people avoid me, many people try to help.
Map
-
Blog posts
Categories
Story tags
Add your own story here!
Twitter
- RT @BCLiterature: Poets! Don't forget - 15 June is the deadline for entering your work to Faber New Poets 2013-14. bit.ly/14sYx6W 13 hours ago
