One day, she stopped summoning the words, so the letters decided to come to her.
They were so small one could barely see them. They came through the floor cracks near her flat naked feet, through the rat holes, through the slits of the blinded window, alphabet by alphabet like the dusty particles of sun rays. They started out scattered around her room, enveloping her as she sat rendered motionless in front of her old desk. Upon recovering from her initial reaction, she started reaching out to pick a letter, but the letters themselves flew out of her grasp. She did this for several times, but got no result. So she gave up and threw up her hands in exasperation. Then she felt the weight on her palms grow little by little. When she looked at them, the letters were there, lifeless like the firework-ashes.
She started arranging the letters to words, but each fought for her attention. E ewantede etoe ebe eate ethe ebeginninge eande ende eofe everye eworde, but S argueds thats its was supposeds tos occupys thes endings always. Q and U didn't want to stand next to each other anymore, so O volunteered to stand as the middle-letter, this was qouickly resolved. X dxmandxd to be usxd more frxquxntly, so E voluntxxrxd its usual place whxnxvxr it appxarxd in the middle.
She got frustrated; the letters weren't helping. She thanked them profusely for coming without being summoned, but said that she couldn't deal with them anymore. The letters stooped, and unlike their entrance, their exit was uneventful: they started walking, slithering, hopping on one leg, rolling, and cartwheeling from the desk to where they had entered. By the window, she heard what seemed like gradual falling of pebbles on the ground. The floor crack creaked under her feet. A rat suddenly appeared on the ground in her peripheral vision, scampering away from its hole.
She sat in front of her desk, but she didn't begin to write. Instead, she began thinking about the letters. Would they ever come back again? Did she offend them?
A slit of the blinds flapped a little, letting in a shard of sunlight that immediately disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. Seeing this, she took her pen.
Author notes
it was one day when I felt like I wanted to stop writing. This fantasy came, and voila!
the misspellings are deliberate in one paragraph. it's part of the project of the prose poem/flash fiction (dunno what to call it yet)
Please do comment if you see this in the featured box. thanks
Written September 15th, 2005
A contest entry
- No Pebbles for Me by Sensual Sapphire.
500 points, ended October 2, 2005, 12 entries
Gold trophy winner
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
What did you think
Comments
1 - 40 of 40
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The creativity and uniqueness of this piece is awesome. They say that when you have a collaboration of a brilliant mind, heart, and talent connected together, you can expect a masterpiece and that is exactly what you have here.
♥ Touchof1der -
great work
interesting fantasy well done! -
Nice write - creative and well done. This could be a good piece in a short story collection - great imagination and creativity.
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thanks so much for the comment.
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Thanks so much for the comment, and sure I'd be honored to have you put this on your list of favorites. Who wouldn't?
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Brilliant imagination
I think this is an amazing piece of writing. What an imagination you have. I loved it all, the flow the story. What an amazing talent you have and that second paragraph is absolutely brilliant. First class writing well done and keep up the good work I am not surprised you won gold you definatly deserved it. BRAVO -
this is wonderful, cool, awesome, unique...a real flight of fantasy and i thoroughly enjoyed reading it! your imagination struck gold with this piece
to me it described wanting to write but not being able to...because of too much confusion and thought running around in my head...having the letters take on a life of their own (right down to squabbling) is how i feel sometimes
i'm going to put this in my list of favorites by AP poets if you don't mind
i applaud the poet and the poem
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wow,thanks so much for the gold. I'm glad you appreciated this little piece that I wrote. Winning something for it is not really the point why I wrote it, but winning gives a bit more encouragement. thanks again.
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I'm sorry for the single word comment the first time through. There wasn't much else I could say at that time. This was outstanding. I stopped and stared at my computer screne for a long time thinking Holy Bunnies! It was 3 days before the closing of the contest and I ahd my gold right here. I couldn't close this early and I could not leave a comment on the odd chance that someone would write a piece that hit me harder. This shows a depth of imagination only barely skimmed. My contest was not for those with tiny imaginations. I wanted something to blow my mind and I'm still picking up the pieces from this one. I hope you enjoy the gold!
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WOW!
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thanks so much for the comment.
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This is very well written. It is very creative and fun to read. It also fits very well all in one together. The detail within this piece though is so intense I had to re-read it like three times. Anyways, Good Write, Keep penning.
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great
hey great write very well described and great way you have written this aswell keep it up mate win gold the contest for us all
+wellsy+
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well, thanks for not giving up on it.
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Had to check this out again, and read to understand this time, It is awesome.,
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What a wonderful way you have written here. Really quite amazing how all this fit so well together. From nothing to perfection. Well written.
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I like this, very creative. Those letters are very fickle, and I love how you had them demanding attention and landing where perhaps they didn't really belong. Cute. Good luck in the contest, and thanks for the MuseIcal smile and poetic inspiration.
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thanks very much for stopping by and reading this one.
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Nice job! Very good detail put into this piece, its rather intresting and powerful. Keep it up dear ... I shall be stopping by your work sometime soon ... I like your work
keep it up
Take care
~ Steph ~ -
thanks. I wouldn't stop writing for the world, even if Plato wouldn't admit me into his Republic. haha.
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thanks for the comment.
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Wow, this was so awesome, I think you did a wonderful job. I loved this. The paragraph with the misspellings was my favorite, that was such a clever idea. You really did a great job with personification in this piece. I am so happy that you are still writing, it would be a shame if you stopped. Keep up the great work.
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This is a realy interesting piece - it is very original . I like the way it flows and where it goes. Lots of thought here and it left me with something to think about.
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Your a great writer.You have a unique style keep on writing it's very special.
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*bows* salamat. hehe. That is, if I get published. competition is just too harsh. I may be churning out things that aren't half as original as the things my own classmates are writing, but oh well, I enjoy it. thanks again.
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brilliant and clever
brilliant kannika.galing.always raving no?you're such a clever writer.one day when you get published and signing your obras in natl bookstore(hehe),i will give you a sampaguita garland and have our picture taken...hahaha.very that's entertainment! -
This is brilliant. It reminds me of one short essay/story from cmedian steve Martin' book Pure Drivel where the author writes to the government complaining about the shortage of punctuation marks, before concluding three whole pages of material with a alone, single, period. I loved this, and thought it was exceptionally clever. I will definitely read more of your work, and please feel free to return the favor by browsing through anything/everything posted on this site by yours truly.-Curtis Meyer
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-Elvis voice-Thank you, thank you very much.
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Wohooo!!! (I've already told you in our vernacular what I think of this... I think... if that may qualify. And I still love this just the same)
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yes, I was in some sort of prison cell trying to comprehend the outcome of a writer's block. ^___^
Thanks for the comment. -
this was brilliantly original. it gave me the feel that the person writing this piece was sitting in a sort of prison cell and trying to comprehend the outcome of a writers block (?!)
my interpretation anyway
im amazed as always kannika
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thank you so much for the applause.
Kannika -
wonderful, marvelous, awesome.
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Sublimely original and supremely entertaining. I was immediately captivated...and absolute joy to read from the first to the last, and the last was the master ace!
A slit of the blinds flapped a little, letting in a shard of sunlight that immediately disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. Seeing this, she took her pen.
Too cool.
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gorgeous. a very vivid image.
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Fabulous bit of prose... Loved it. Very creative.
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thanks very much.
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Very clever and fun read, a rare piece of originality on the site, that I really appreciate. I want to congratulate you on this fine piece. I hope that a lot of people find and enjoy this piece as I have, thank you very much. -Al
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oh thanks for that heads up on the typo. thanks much.
and thanks for commenting.
Kannika -
Delightful
I am so glad I held back one of my applauses today! This is absolutely gorgeous and delightful and I love it to bits. Fantasy prose poetry at its very best. A couple of typos or spelling errors (creaked, not creeked). But charming and evocative and funny, and worth marking as a favourite. Thanks for posting it.
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