Writing prompts - March 2011

After a bit of a break I started doing the writing prompts again, albeit not so frequently, which I am trying to get to do daily again. Here are the pieces I wrote for the month of March.

Silence

Silence is noisy

When there’s no one around me

I speak to myself.

***

Thoughts fill up my head

Distracting me from silence –

A prelude to sleep.

Ending to a story

Sam died silently last night. It was painless and peaceful. There were no tears and no goodbyes, just an understanding. The silence that followed had been unexpectedly eerie. It threatened to envelope me and break my defenses. And the only way that I could stop myself from falling apart was to make my way towards this spot of the house.

I have been sitting here ever since, watching the fish swim aimlessly around the tank. Sam had always loved this fish tank. It was one of the first things we had brought into the house. And it would be one of the last things that I would leave behind, along with the chandeliers and the rest of the memorabilia. That was what Sam wanted. Take nothing. Leave everything. Now all I had to do was make that one phone call that would further change my life forever. Sam wanted that and I had no choice but to respect his final wish. But for now and until that moment, all I wanted was to watch the fish, alone, one last time; the fish that Sam loved.

Movie theatre

The little boy sitting in the front row could not contain himself much longer. His tiny fists started shaking in the air as he leapt out of his seat and let out the loudest cheer ever heard in a movie theatre. And at almost the same moment, the audience started clapping and cheering on, faces glued to the screen, watching as the leading character made it through to the finish line. Jim was right; this was much better than being at the races.

Mirrors

They show me a face that I don’t recognise,

And in genuine grace, I try not to despise,

Though my face is a blur, I resist a refrain

And throw back a smile of proper disdain.

The Accountant 

“This balance sheet just won’t balance! I’ve tried everything!”

He looked at the intern thoughtfully, behind his thick glasses, eyebrows raised. Being a mentor was just not fun anymore. He would rather deal with numbers than with people and he really had no idea how to respond to this. And this particular intern just had no clue. Honestly, he wondered at times why he worked for this firm.

The intern looked up at him again pleadingly.

“Alright, let me have a look,” he said with a deep, impatient sigh. But he only needed a moment before he felt a raging bout of sarcasm rise within him. Controlling his frustration, he took off his glasses and proceeded to polish the lenses with the utmost of precision and care. After he was done for a good five minutes and at which point he felt calm enough to deliver his analysis of the situation, the accountant slowly rose from his chair holding the document carefully in his hands and looked at the intern sternly.

“The reason why your balance sheet will not balance,” he paused taking in a deep breath, “is because you are trying to balance a profit and loss statement. This.is.not.a.balance.sheet!”

And with that he placed the document on the desk before a confused intern and walked out of the room.

A Bridge

I stood at a crossroads,

Not knowing where to go,

One way would lead me,

To find myself and grow,

While the other way would give me,

Fearless courage to say no.

A choice to make I likened,

To crossing a burning bridge,

Once crossed it is destined,

to never wallow in regret.