Skate or Ride: CotM winner and New CotM!!
Hello, Writers and Dear Readers.
In today's vid on the channel, we announce the winner of last month and the new prompt! After the reveal, if you decide to stay, we run through the crew on the short list.
Here's the link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV2ET7xMnfA
And here's the new CotM.
https://theprose.com/challenge/13889
And.
As always........
Thank you for being here.
-The Prose. team
To love myself the way nobody did
I made a vow few years ago to fall in love with me
To tell that girl stuck in time to let herself be free
That it's okay to be herself and care not for others
That she does not need to hide and cry under her covers
That no matter how she looks like she is beautiful inside and out
That she needs not the company of those who lurk in the shadows of doubt
I’d stand in front of the mirror and hug the living daylight out of her
I’d shout her name and make sure she knows I am her
I’ll tell her each day that she matters
When she laughs and cries and during her endless chatters
I’ll show her the future that she was afraid of
Imprint in her being the real meaning of love
I’d read her verses of villains and heroes
Tales of knights, witches, demons and pharaohs
I’d build a castle of wool for her on top of a hill
Let her run and scream and never stay still
I’d give her books, plenty to submerge her head in
To learn that words are not mere weapons with which to kill
I’d let shout all the words she hid inside
Let her know that does not need to hide
My gift would be to become her comfort
To arm her with enough love to be her support
So that one day when she is all alone
She’ll know fully well she was enough love shown
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Writers
Hello, Writers and Dear Readers.
In today's video, I went ahead and shot it from my profile. Always good to change it up once in awhile. But I wanted to feature some of the new writers and give thanks to the ones I've admired, and I figured the best way to do it was from a writer, and not the admin, at least for this one. Here's the link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93DI9TdR5DE
And.
As always....
Thank you for being here.
-The Prose. team.
Falcon on Fire
Out of the desecrated rubble,
through the impenetrable smoke,
emerges a figure.
A fiery trail of ash and ember cascade in its wake,
and a perfect sun burns at its core.
A flaming light, a brilliant beacon.
The Phoenix.
A raptor with unmistakable talons,
grabbing its prey with deliberacy and precision.
Don’t be so quick to set aside the feat,
because it wasn’t always this way.
It had to die to get here.
An entire forest burnt to the ground to nourish it.
A path of bodies lay crumbled in its aftermath.
And it wears their shoes to commemorate their suffering,
never to forget how it was created,
never to forget the agony it sustained,
and never to forget what it felt like to burn alive.
© 2023 Chris Sadhill
The Reader
Use your blade shaped with vowels,
to cut me deep through the vein.
Hang your noose made of verbs,
So, I may cross over that plane.
Kill me with your story,
Then bring me to life with your words.
Stitch me back up,
only to tear me apart from the herd.
Let me read one more saga,
and begin where I did start.
Let me feel what you felt,
When you wrote these pages from your heart.
Homecoming
The heavy rain pounds the earth,
The ground has taken it's fill.
The excess flows in small streams
That go blindly down the hill.
A newcomer to the town
Has become lost on his way.
Came to be a visitor,
Only now is forced to stay.
"How did I get here," he thinks.
Doesn't know where he has been,
and where to find some shelter
is too far beyond his ken.
Lightning blazes in the sky;
Its daylight, so bright and full.
He sees it in the distance
a cross upon a steeple.
Before long he has made it,
to a small church right beside,
a small and tidy graveyard
where are buried those who died.
It looks familiar to him,
but this surely cannot be.
He's never been here before
At least not that he can see.
He shakes the thought from his mind
He knows now that he must try
to get inside the building,
where surely it must be dry.
He finds the front door is locked,
the side and back are as well.
He opens a storm cellar,
and sees a vision of hell.
The place is filled with the dead
all are standing on their own.
They all turn their heads tow'rd him
The warm smiles welcome him home.
Everything comes flooding back,
a shock to his flailing mind.
He did not survive his trip
He'll be here for quite some time.
Make up my Mind, Please
All my life I've been plagued by indecision.
I want what I want.
my heart throws a tantrum
The demons dance
The angels cry
Halfway to the want, I pause
Think it over
Think it over
Don't make a mistake
You're already over your quota
Backing up, into myself
I change
everything changes
it's out of my control
The brain snaps out of its fog
I know what's right
Like a timid turtle
I pull back inside my shell
close the door
turn the lock
Whew, safe for now
Demons, go back to hell
where you came from
Take your tricks with you
Friendless
Do you ever feel like you have everyone surrounding you, but no one at all?
I do. I feel friendless.
School
I know at least 30 people
But are we friends?
No.
That's made clear when they have birthday parties that I don't know about.
When they go to Moe's after school and I'm left going home, lonely, on the bus.
When the library is full of my "friends" but I'm not there.
A "friend" said that I'm popular.
She's funny. And kind. And wonderful.
But, she has friends. Good friends.
I have acquaintances. No friends.
This isn't their fault.
They are wonderful people.
But... as people grow up,
People grow apart.
As people grow up,
I shrink... falling farther and farther from humanity.