General

The Game

She asks, what dreams may be, what dreams for me,
a pawn sacrificed, from daughter to wife
for riches gained, for connections, to see
a family well-rise, though bought with her life.
Come smile, come dance, enchant, and charm, a king
can be a fool, a fool a king, embrace
the chase where you’re the lure to snag the ring.
So, bards will sing and painters paint—a trace
of her may remain after death, a child
might live to rule. She’ll have the final laugh.
But she won’t know, if beguiled or reviled,
she smiles and waits, a pause midst notes on staff,
one bar sung. A moment in time and place
so bright, but small compared to sun or moon.
Hand-fasted, on a square within a space
she waits with hope, with doubt, with thoughts fine-tuned.
Now, she’s played queen’s gambit, now she is queen–
moves played…

THIS WEEK’S WORDS come from“Emptying”by Aaron Zhang:summer, edge, wave, branches, leaf, pretense, paper, soiled, bridge, ring, warble, echo

She’d forgiven everyone

and emptied her home

of all that gave it meaning

a new leaf this summer

a new beginning

with branches of faith

and a wave of hope

No more pretense

no more soiled tears

no more living on the edge

echoing time to move on

like a wild bird warble

bridging that gap

to make her whole again

(c) ladyleemanila 2023

For: https://reinventionsreena.wordpress.com/2023/06/15/reenas-xploration-challenge-284/, http://sundayswhirligig.blogspot.com/2023/06/whirligig-427.html

Reena is our host and this week says:

I give you a line which can be used anywhere in your piece. The idea of a first line or last line becomes too restrictive.

You can break it up, but you cannot insert or skip words in between. Well, we do need some conditions. 🙂

She’d forgiven everyone and emptied her home of all that gave it meaning.

Written for https://reinventionsreena.wordpress.com/2023/06/15/reenas-xploration-challenge-284/

She’d forgiven everyone and emptied her home of all that gave it meaning. Now, on the edge of yet another move, Martha was moving on. Was her marriage always a hollow shell? Perhaps, but she couldn’t help thinking she could have done more. The vase, which held so much meaning, a forgotten mass of pottery.

Flowers, his go to, when he was feeling remorseful.

A long day at work, a meeting, so much pressure. What did she have to complain about? Didn’t she get that new kitchen? Holidays abroad? A new diamond ring? Still it wasn’t good enough.

Now she knew different – all those belongings didn’t compare to happiness.

Perhaps the last person she needed to forgive, was herself. It was never her fault; the hate, the blame game. A dinner late, or a word said in haste. ‘I’m sorry,’ said the walls, even more quickly.

The prompt is to use this sentence in a story:
She’d forgiven everyone and emptied her home of all that gave it meaning.

Annette had never heard of the term “hoarder” until her 25-year-old daughter sandwiched it in-between two “F” words at the top of her lungs upon entering her old family home.
Her daughter hadn’t been home in seven years. Annette still held bad feelings about Lanie’s abandonment of her for all that time in the same way she hadn’t yet forgiven Lanie’s dad for dying and abandoning her too. She felt that Lanie was terribly rude in her overreaction to a “little” flea market clutter.

“What the HELL, Ma?! This place is a stinking mess and a fire death trap. What were you thinking?”

“Really?! You don’t come home for years, and you think you own this place NOW.”

Annette wasn’t going to take that language or attitude…

She wanted to move on with her life and let bygones be bygones.  Fuhgeddaboudit would become her new motto, as she decided to leave all the unpleasantries in the past.  Everything that has happened, was part of her past and she was ready for a new future.  She’d forgiven everyone and emptied her home of all that gave it meaning.  She learned that fate is unsympathetic, and the universe does not stop to morn.  The only chance she has to get any meaning out of her life now will be from treating others with kindness and hating the people that wronged her would be futile.  Her home is empty of all the things that she once valued, but possessions can be replaced, or she could do without them.  Her materialistic tendencies were only an adaptive response that helped her to cope with situations that made her feel anxious and insecure. …

Reena gave us a line which can be used anywhere in our piece. The idea of a first line or last line becomes too restrictive.

She’d forgiven everyone and emptied her home of all that gave it meaning.

➰➰➰

They all left, one by one.

Her husband died of cancer, the children wanted better opportunities in life so they moved away too. And at the end, her elderly cat also succumbed to old age.

She was in good health and had no illness to slow her down but what to do about the heart that craved the company of loved ones.

To take her mind off the loneliness, she decided to remodel her life. There was no use of clinging to resentment so she’d forgiven everyone and emptied her home of all that gave it meaning. Every single piece of furniture that was associated with her previous life was given…

A follow-up to The truth is out there., posted for Reena’s Xploration Challenge and Sadje’s What Do You See?

She willed her fingers to move, reminiscent of Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. She couldn’t honor the urge to scream if she wanted to; nor could she laugh out loud at the fluffy orange haired toupee wearer.
Thankfully, she hadn’t fallen over. Her body sort of hovered and crouched. Her tenacity was fierce. Her fingers began twitching-flickering like the people all around her. Ugh, she thought, just get up. Slowly, she began regaining tactility, sensing solid ground beneath her. She urged her feet to push.
She concentrated every ounce of will toward achieving movement. She began to lean. Her small frame faltered. It was as though she was the only person within sight that had any sort of conscious control over motor function, yet from inside a mind-controlled robot.