Prompt

"I found the strangest thing in my pocket."

i found the strangest thing
hiding in my pocket
that ate my spare change
and my mother's brass locket
i found a small monster
quietly lurking in there
instead of my keys
when i stuck my hand in its lair
it didn't try to bite me
but it stole the ring from my hand
making this clear:
it had claimed the land
my pocket, i mourn you
you're the first thing it stole
this monster in my pocket
this monster: a hole

-Emily

Orbit

sometimes
i think that i'm
like the sun
if i couldn't be me

then i would be                                                      i think that i'm

a large ball of gas                                                   like the moon
stranded in space                                                   if i couldn't be me
too large                                                                then i would be
and too powerful                                                   a large ball of rock
to be extinguished                                                  forever reaching
to be ignored                                                         for a point
and everything that                                                 in the distance
comes to close                                                      that i will never reach
dares to approach                                                  no matter how hard i try
hopes too hard                                                      and every time that i
would catch fire                                                     forget my pain

and burn                                                                  forgive my flaws

and there i would be                                                and try again
all alone                                                                    i quickly learn
                                                                                 that i am forever

a captive of stasis
because i love

-Emily

Gabriel's Night

"It's been five years since Gabriel ran away. Faith still waits by the window, hoping that he will return. Angela pretends she never had a brother to miss, a brother to lose. And I comb the streets, searching for the broken son I would never find."

It's raining just like it was the night Gabriel ran away. Even the streetlights provide little illumination through the harrowing downpour. The mud, slick with clay, won't dry for weeks. The ground is so wet that footsteps disappear moments after being formed. A person could disappear into a storm like this one - disappear and never be found.
We get storms like this every summer, where the deluge is so heavy we have to shout to have conversations. Not even thunder can pierce through the deafening rain. Occasionally, lightning flickers on the horizon, too far away to be seen clearly and much too quiet to be heard. I used to take comfort in the season's storms because, as troublesome as the rain was, it also provided a sense of relief from the mundane tasks of everyday life. The rains isolated us from our neighbors. The town's friendly buzz was replaced by the steady beat of a million raindrops on the roof, and it was just us: me, Faith, Angela, and Gabriel.

The Rescue

If I were to describe the girl sitting in the corner of the coffee shop, I’d say she was a high schooler. Her face was unmarred by age and her eyes held a touch of the youthful innocence that adulthood stole away. Her hair was plain brown, without any accessories. On occasion, her hand would reach up and twirl a lock around her finger. She was waiting for someone – a date?

I was a struggling writer living paycheck by paycheck, working as a journalist. Needless to say, I wasn’t very good at it. I wanted to live in fantasies, fighting treacherous snakes and rescuing benevolent princesses, not trying to make a twelve-year-old’s winning goal in a soccer game seem heroic. Unfortunately, life wasn’t going the way I wanted it to.

It was stroke of fortune that I even noticed her.

Prompt

[My example of an entry for Contest #6:
Include this line: "...but if anyone asks, tell them we're fine."
Must be submitted before midnight on the last day of March, 2013.]


We are fine. Things may hurt, but in the end, we'll be fine. There are many people out there that have things worse than us. Worry about them. We'll be fine.

We often get asked how we manage, how we can live with all this, how we can pull through even the hardest of times. Well, it's hard. Anyone can tell you that. God, it's hard. People don't understand what they can't see, and there's no way in hell we'll show them. What it's like to cry. What it's like to hurt. What it's like to fall.

No, we won't fall. We're fine. Everything this life throws at us - we'll take it head on, and we'll be triumphant. In the end, we'll be the ones left. There is nothing in this world that can kill us. So we'll be fine.

Prompt

Why do people encourage others to smoke/drink?

There are two reasons. 

1) There are evil, evil people in this world.  

2) There are gross pictures of livers, lungs, and internal organs plastered all over the net.  The reason people encourage others to smoke and drink is because misery loves company.  They know they're going to die, and by that time, they smoke/alcohol has killed off so many brain cells that they don't quit. And if they're going to die, why not just drag other people down with them? Why not ensure that they have company in death? They're gong to die anyways. Might as well bring friends along too.

-Emily