k*mb*rl**l*d**

My desire to write

About errant drift.

A vessel has a want,

a will and a design

but no power to stop

Should be powered by

steam in the radio age.

Steampunk ship, maybe

on a jab. Tug boat in steam

drag. In the cinema age,

the inventor plays with

tub toys in a Jersey creek

to broadcast the war.

The favorite summer movie

to watch while bobbing in

Barton Springs is JAWS.

A ship is a siren, a femme

fatale, recalling the B&W

playing at the dock

in CINEMA PARADISO

+++

7107:

we practice saying yes. [day 4]

One Hit Wonder 

My anchor, I’m singing for you again. 

Alone in my room or my younger, sweeter 
ghost piping through the radio.

How many devotions to turn around
the filthy summer anthem
so it speaks only to us?

When I call, your thinning blood moves me
to an empty field. Tall emerald sways.

Stay on the line.

How I can press my shoulder to the brick
of this narrow hallway and reach for you
with my will.

I just didn’t want another secret.

In the movies when they close in on her face streaked so many colors
and we know all her sound, she’s giving over her whole moment to him—
I did this for you at the Paramount. You weren’t even in the same city
and I still meant it.

You don’t have to ask for anything.
I’m singing to you somehow.

The arc completes itself.

Constructed with words from Pamela Lu (via Jai Arun Ravine), Baraka del Soleil (via Ching-In Chen), Saint Teresa (via Sarah Gambito), Kimberly Alidio, Jessica J., Jai Arun Ravine, Pia C., and Masha Tupitsyn.

* * *

Prompts

… Mrs. Jeffers didn’t know her son. 

She thought he would come home directly. But he didn’t  

go straight home the day he crossed the line

with nothing but his name. …

—Camille T. Dungy

What happened at dinner? (Any dinner.)

Kimberly Alidio:   The Luzon Bleeding-Heart Pigeon (Gallicolumba luzonica) is shy and secretive, very quiet, and rarely leaves the ground except when nesting.

Bushra Rehman:   Ann Peebles — I Can’t Stand the Rain (lyrics here)

Jai Arun Ravine:   Only Asia The Invincible can save me now:

Pia C.:   ”Memory is the core of what we call reality. Think about it for a second. What do you actually hear right now and see? This page. The wall and furnishings of the room in which you sit. Perhaps some music or some background noise. Yet you know as sure as you were born that out of sight there are other rooms mere steps away — perhaps the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and a hall. What makes you so sure that they exist? Nothing but your memory. Nothing at all.” (from “Reality Is a Shared Hallucination” by Howard Bloom) 

Jessica J:   When does time most influence your life?

* * *

Housekeeping

Please post in the comments section of this blog entry with: 1) your writing in response to today’s writing(s) and 2) a prompt or question to share for tomorrow.

And if the comments are down, feel free to send your work to arkipelagirl [at] gmail.com, and I’ll post for you when the comments are fixed. 

Full info on the process and this project can be found at this page.

Dear Collaborators, please remember to provide some kind of acknowledgement of each other’s words/prompts/intentions/feelings as well as any of your other sources.

Also, I saw some ‘liking’ happening in the post yesterday, which is great. Feel free to reply to each other! Comments threads are for comments, right. Also: please do send me your bios/links so I can update the page.

Thank you (x 4)!