Author: Reena Saxena

I woke up in 2021 from a coma 
and went right back into trauma
coz everywhere I looked
people were nuked
by a virus they called the corona

Reena’s exploration challenge – I woke up in 2021

I woke up in 2021…They talked about the year’s demise. The cadaverous yesteryear, perchance, is still lurking in the venomous, moth-eaten chronicles. Putrifying, wafting off an exceptional noisome smell. Once again the year begins with a pound in the chest, completely knocking you down. Standing at the cul-de-sac my eyes glazed over the sable night. Hopefully, it ends differently.

Beneath the graceful curve of the sky, where I tossed a handful of seeds, where blissful clumps of perennials pregnant with plump fruits with copious creepers bursting at the seam bestride the trees in the manner of a leafy colossus. They allure vociferous macaw and indigenous chirpy flinches with their tails dipped in cherry, preening themselves with absurd indifference. Here ladybugs and ants scurry along the callow shoots and burgeoning foliage like colonel blimp. The soft singsong of the leaves awakens a restful ache to lose yourself in the heartening…

Reena is the host of Reena’s Exploration Challenge

Welcome to much-awaited 2021! Wish you all a very Happy New Year, brimming with creativity and more freedom than you had in the year that passed away!

+1 is always good. 2020+1 seems better. I hope we are able to say Thank You, 2021 — You were the best.

Well, we go ahead with the Exploration Challenge, as usual, finding a way to connect with your brilliance every week. I’ve just changed the cover pic, just for that feel of something new.

PROMPT #167

I woke up in 2021 ….

Take it ahead in any manner you like – fiction, fantasy, poetry, essay, reflections or art.

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I woke up in 2021…….

And was totally disoriented

Loud bangs and fireworks were going on in the streets

Throngs of people celebrating the new year with joy and excitement

What was going on, and…

‘Whatever Gets You Thru The Night’ is a John Lennon song that was on his 1974 Walls and Bridges album and it featured Elton John on harmony vocals and piano.  The music was inspired by the #1 single at the time, ‘Rock Your Baby’ by George McCrae.  Elton John had a feeling that this song was going to be a hit, so he bet Lennon that the song would top the charts.  A skeptical Lennon took him up on it saying that if it did, then he would appear on stage at one of Elton’s performances.  This song hit #1 in the US and charted #36 in the UK and Lennon made what would be his last major concert appearance at Elton John’s Thanksgiving Day performance at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 28, 1974.  With this song, Lennon became the last of the Beatles to hit #1 US in…

2021 and I finally
Wake-up. It wasn’t a coma,
Just a long, dedicated nap.
Somewhat refreshed,
I can now see
In my tiny window
The streets filled with flame,
The buildings swaying
And the people shooting
Each other and their mothers
and at the moon
With a fresher gaze.
I sigh and close the shutters
And go searching for cereal
Until I find a black hole
Situated in my kitchen.
And I’m still hungry.

2022 and I finally
Wake-up. It wasn’t death,
Just a light vacation
From life. I fling from my bed
And notice the world
Is but a silent haze now
With shadow-people
Wandering about. Slowly.
The sky: a thick, yellow ghost
And I’m disappointed to find
That the black hole has
Stretched towards the breakfast nook.
Fortunately, an image is beamed
Into my eye: an old man
Letting us know we no longer
Have to fear: peace…

I woke up in 2021, surprised because the doctors said I wouldn’t.  I looked at myself; wires, tubes, bandages, casts, and beeping machines with rhythmic pulses on screens that are supposed to register life.

The room; a window, a door, a bathroom, two chairs, and a television, painted the pale green that must have been left over from some forgettable past era.

I could not feel or move except for my eyes and lips. I could hear faint voices, shuffling, and alarms in the hallway. Then I don’t remember.

I woke up in 2021 caught in an intimate relationship and I guess that I just got used to having her around.  When we met, she told me that there was no need to romance her, as she was a sure thing.  I became distracted by her beauty which was mesmerizing, but romance was one aspect that I certainly wanted to have in a relationship.  I wanted more and I turned into a basket case because I started ignoring the ignorance of this situation.  I wanted to kiss her and she insisted that wasn’t necessary, so we argued constantly till I got tired.  She looked just like Elizabeth Taylor and I asked her if we could go up on the tin roof with a blanket where we could be like street cats making love.

Written for Sheryl’s Daily Word Prompt – Distracted, for the Daily Spur prompt – Aspect

I woke up in 2021 hoping to jump out of bed.

my dreams, plentiful and weird
are still more comforting
than what this world has become

so I woke up in 2021 wanting to go right back to bed.