The Swing – NaPoWriMo Day 6

When I was still quite little
A girl at the playground cautioned me,
That if I went to high on the swing,
I would circle all the way around.
I’d been doing my best
To pump my tiny legs
So I could reach the sky.
I loved the motion
And the feeling of freedom.
I asked her if I would fall off,
If I reached the top.
I only had a basic idea
Of gravity.
And centripetal force
Was beyond my limited years.
The girls eyes were big
As she shrugged,
But she determinedly insisted
That someone had done it.
They’d gone all the way.
Their power and speed so great
That they had orbited.
This was a feat I easily imagined.
I was both afraid and tempted.
Would I plummet like a meteor
Or pull beyond the weightless peak
Creating a new playground revolution?
Long after I knew it wasn’t possible,
I would have a moment of breathlessness,
As I would push to the swing’s climax
Hoping to rocket beyond my earthly confines
While still tethered safely to the world I knew.

Destiny (NaPoWriMo Day 3)

The heavy book fluttered its pages impatiently. Dust drifted lazily away. Without a reader it was just an object and that was certainly not satisfactory. It wanted attendants. It wanted its words to come alive and dance from the page, starting a movement that could not be put down. The dust settled to the floor. The book had been forgotten; left on a shelf for far too long. It waited. It knew it held secrets that could create and change destinies.

Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was a bit different, “Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a surreal prose poem. For inspiration, check out Franz Kafka’s collection of short parables (my favorite is “The Green Dragon”).”