Sept. 3rd Sunday Write Only One Week Late
But another three days until posted here. Still, that’s not bad for me! The actual call went out September 20, well technically third Tuesday but only two days off, and my response actually hit the Facebook page on the 25th. The fourth Sunday, that is.
So this is the Bloomington Writers Guild’s “Third Sunday Write” (see September 5, et al.). As to what it’s about — the “Third Sunday” idea, that is, not the topic for this month’s particular outing which will be announced with the essay itself — group moderator Shana Ritter supplies four potential prompts each month, of which members may pick one as inspiration for a poem, or essay, or story . . . whatever, to post on the Facebook site with members then picking a line to re-quote by way of a comment. This is, anyway, the post-Covid answer to what had originally been live sessions with respondents writing, lickity split, responses to all prompts for reading out loud, face-to-face, to the others in turn.
But what is, is. So, quoting from Facebook, here is my response to what was the first sample prompt, as quoted as well:
1. Autumn Equinox is upon us, a moment when day and night are equal. What does balance look like to you?
Balance looks like a ball spinning on a seal’s nose. That’s “classic” balance, the kind we all saw in circuses. Elsewhere. But beneath the circus an orca waits, lurking. A potential fourth ring. Or maybe more desperate — orcas do eat seals — to rip through the fabric of canvas and sawdust, consuming elephants. Acrobats also. Its hunger reaching as high as trapeze bars.
That’s “balance” as it appears in the real world. On the TV, a Russian dictator reminding he has nukes should Ukraine offend him. Which it does already.
A balance of terror?
Or mirth in the absurd: A deposed U.S. President threatening violence should crimes be investigated, but is not the violence in itself a crime? An orca-devouring shark that bites its own tail. My cat has a birthday on the Autumn equinox —
She’s in it for the fish.
