Three Word Wednesday caustic hunch sacrifice
shoulders hunched
bunched with tension
no pretension
helpless heart unshielded
soft belly yielded
weighted down by caustic words
jagged shards
drawing blood, invisible flood of
pain the streams
through dreams
of future man
the sacrifice, no plan
no thought for
tomorrow’s sorrow
This one seems a little obscure to me. I get the picture of a person being assaulted but I don’t understand what “the streams through dreams of future man” means. Are the attackers the ones who are taking no thought for tomorrow’s sorrow? Is it a Good Friday?
I was thinking of harsh critical words said to kids and how they have far reaching consequences.
To me it is a reference to the inheritence of the attitudes of our predecessors, through the eyes of the abused.
I was thinking of verbal abuse but you got it friend.
“invisible flood of pain” — a superb and heart-wrenching metaphor for verbal abuse. And you capture so well the feeling of numbness that comes as a result, a loss of touch with joy.
Fantastic words and imagery!
intense and powerful interpretation of the prompt.
oh, and in Paris I saw catsup, once.
(smiles!)
JP/deb
Very powerful piece.
Thought-provoking. I had to read it through more than once. The “caustic words” and “no thought for tomorrow’s sorrow” struck me as particularly telling. How often do we offer words without realizing their impact?
Walden had such a day yesterday with his own Viola Swamp, only she’s no substitute and she’s got no bright and cheery Miss Nelson in the closet.
Oh I’m sorry…Buy him ice cream for me will ya? And love on him and hug him and make it better. Yeesh. I once sat outside 4th grade detention after school waiting for my son who got in trouble for pushing back at a bully on the playground. I took him for ice cream after and told him that sometimes life just stinks and even though they try, grown-ups don’t always have the answers and sometimes you just have to shake it off and eat ice cream. It was the only time he ever got in trouble in school and he was mortified. He was protecting someone littler and it was a lesson in how sometimes doing the right thing still gets us in trouble. (but we should do it anyway!)
Ha! Ice cream it was…magic elixir.
I immediately got that this was about bullying.
Great write 🙂
There is no magic elixer for verbal abuse. A hurt that cannot be seen is very hard locate and heal. Well done.
b
words hurt, I think they hurt children more because they take what you said and truly believe it
thanks for your visit and the info link
This was a sad poem and while I thank God for the little hurts that CAN be fixed by a hug and some ice cream, there are so many things that are said with no thought to how it ripples out, not just to the future, but to every person that interacts with the person affected by the words (and worse). May we all be more aware of our words and deeds and their effects and look for ways to heal rather than hurt. Thank you all 🙂
You used a lot of emphasis and powerful words. I was looking to the ending for a little bit of clarity because I was not sure where it was going. After I read your reply to Lilibeth, the lightbulb came on and I reread it with a better comprehension. Good job on the harshness and emotion!
Excellent. I just read the comment above this one – my piece this week stemmed from that tragedy. One wonders how we can be so thoughtless and dense.
I had not heard about this little girl. It is always sad when someone takes their own life but so much more so when it is someone so young.