Tag Writing

The Fight – VisDare 38

freyathewriter 4 Comments

Here’s my latest offering for Anonymous Legacy‘s photo-inspired prompt, VisDare. This week’s prompt word is ‘Chase’. The rules are simple:

150 words – or less.

Post entry to your blog and “link in”.

(Please – no erotica or graphic violence.)

DON’T FORGET to read and comment on others’ entries!!

The photo is below, and my piece follows.  Let me know what you think, and give it a go yourself, why not?

 

– The Fight – 

They’re too fast. There’s no way I can escape their clutches. My stomach clenches with fear, I gasp, swallow sea-water and go under, once, twice, flailing, kicking, eyes stinging against the salt.

My chest is on fire. I’m desperate to breathe, to oxygenate my lungs. Where’s the surface? What will be worse, drowning or….?

Instinct – the primeval urge to survive – pushes me to the surface and I pop up, released like a champagne cork. I drag in ragged breaths. I don’t care if they get me, I just need to breathe…

The sun shines. A lone seagull casts its shadow on the gently swelling surface. The storm has passed and they are gone. I see the lighthouse, a candy-striped speck in the distance and begin to power through the water towards it.

For the next few minutes, I can pretend that all is as it used to be.

*****

anonymous-legacy-160x160-black

Reflections – dVerse Form for All: Ballads

freyathewriter 26 Comments

– Reflections –

Mists hang low in valleys soft
The sun suspended, brings the dawn
Creatures stir, send sighs aloft
Fields jewel-encrusted, sparkle

Nature’s joys in sharp relief
To inner turmoil, loss and pain
My heart it trembles, not with grief
But contentment, long-awaited

I see the beauty through Dad’s eyes
His artist’s gift, perception
My heart it lifts, my own sunrise
His smile in mine reflected.

*****

This is in honour of my dad, who we lost this summer too soon for Autumn’s mists.  He championed Nature in his work, and his art.

Thank you, dVerse for the inspiration. Enjoy many, many more ballads here.

The Right Stuff – Alastair’s Photo Fiction

freyathewriter 9 Comments

Here is my offering for Alastair’s Photo Fiction this week, inspired by the photo below.  Why not take part? And why not visit his photography and writing blog to take a look at his other photos…?

Copyright - A Mixed Bag

Copyright – A Mixed Bag

– The Right Stuff –

“Isn’t this what you wanted, Alex?”

“No, why on earth would it be?”

“But you always courted attention, you were always at the centre of things! This should be perfect!”

“If you think a plaque, memorial gates and a champagne reception for the city worthies represent my life’s work, then I wasted far more time than I care to think about.”

Silence follows. Some things never change.

“Sarah. Sarah? Are you alright, dear? Are you ready to go in now?”

I look at the man – some titled chap who had taken it upon himself to ‘look after’ me, the ‘poor Mrs Albright’.

I stand, pull back my shoulders, take a deep breath.

“I’m sorry, I need to cancel all of this. Alex wanted the focus to be on his causes, not him as a person. The money you have raised should go to charity, not be spent on this. I’m so sorry…”

The man takes my hand, a shockingly intimate response. I realise that I haven’t been touched by another person for weeks.

“My dear, I quite agree. Leave it with me. I will deal with the hangers-on.”

I sit down with a thump. I feel a huge relief.

“Thank you, sweetheart.”

The silence that follows this time is somehow comforting.