Panes of yesterday…

A chill ran down my spine, my heart giving a painful squeeze as I looked up at my window and saw her. It stirred all the old memories… fearful, dank and dark.. the sight through the window-pane… of that straight back, the white robes and the black wimple… feelings of feeling small and insignificant, while I stared up at the stern countenance, always but always reprimanding me… for being myself… sometimes for laughing too loud… sometimes for shouting in the long and silent corridors that seemed to stretch forever… so far that I wanted to shout to see whether my voice would return to me…

What were you doing here, now, in my home after so many years? Why, when I had successfully put you away in a remote corner of my soul (or at least so I thought). I hurry in, anxious whether your icy stare would now be turned onto my young son… all my protective instincts coming to the fore.

I turn into the room… and stand there shocked … to find a tableau that will be forever etched in my mind… my young son, holding aloft his prized possession… a frog found in the garden… now housed in a generous bottle… and you, a wide, encouraging smile… admiring his closer-than-heart-buddy dutifully…

Which one then is true? My larger-than-life memories? Or the larger-than-life smiles on your faces as you both turned to look at me?

For Magpie Tales prompt #31

The Dilemna

The sun set over the balcony and evening stretched long ahead into the night. The idea that there was this stretch of time available was so seductive. The excited smiles opened the door and invited the words to come pouring in. So many thoughts, so many ideas, so much of oneself to give and take! Like a game of a well-played game of tennis, the words were passed, one to other … weaving dreams, spells and stories of past, present and future… over endless cups of coffee and tea and cigarettes .. they talked, sometimes sitting relaxed, sometimes leaning forward in excitement, sometimes lying stretched idly. The deep temptation to touch lay there, underneath all those words, like a nibble in the apple… the desire to feel the other’s breath, taste skin, the ache to know more than what words could say. There were times when they drew close, fingers touching once in a while, yet afraid that more than that would dissolve the night and in engagement exchange would be lost. Yet just exchanging would mean that one never would engage in any other meaningful way. The dilemma and the temptation stretched deep into the night and before it could be resolved, day broke and the rising Sun took the shadows away …

Magpie Tales carries these picture prompts… pictures that are expected to trigger the creative juices… so that out could come a poem, a tale, a musing… this one is for their prompt #30

consumption issues

i came across this and it points out areas where our could problem lie: (http://www.greenbang.com/2010-world-eco-debt-arrives-early_15050.html)

“The problem is not just one of overconsumption, but pointless consumption. Last year, for example, the UK exported 131,000 tonnes of chewing gum to Spain and imported 125,00 tonnes back again; exported 3,300 tonnes of soft toys to New Zealand, and then imported 2,400 tonnes back again; and exported 43,000 tonnes of toffee to France while at the same time importing 39,000 tonnes from the French.”