spring sale*

i smell perfume
flowers in bloom
bouquets and baskets
in hand

it's a spring sale.

i can see jewels
in the air
clouds lined with gold
dipped in blue

so name your price.

the earth is warm
beneath my feet
the roots below
flowing with blood

and i will pay for it.

the skies turn brown
the forests burn down
and the oceans fill with fire
until
even the seas drown

deal.



* The beautiful and haunting painting is from Lisa Kretz.

I'm going to be honest. I've been struggling with my writing for the past year or so. And for a variety of reasons. It's probably mostly because I've had less time to just sit and digest my thoughts and feelings. And when that happens, ideas and concepts don't come as natural as they might otherwise. And when that happens, the things you write begin sounding forced or contrived (because they are).

This piece actually started back in last year, when the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill began and didn't seem like it was ever going to stop. At that time, like most of the people on this planet, I felt completely helpless about how the world was literally going down the drain. And so, out of frustration and anger, I tried to write a piece about it. I managed to write a couple of lines down and tentatively named it, "price of fire". And for almost a year, it sat there in draft form in my blog dashboard thingy.

Recently, I went back to it. And instead of "trying" to make something happen, I just decided to write my thoughts down and be less critical with myself. The strange thing is, when I first wrote "spring sale" down, I wasn't that big of a fan (although that happens much more often than I admit). But unlike my previous attempts, it was at least something I didn't detest.

So hopefully this is a sign of things to come.