My Sunday writing friend found a wonderfully written story about a child who tasted a bug and we used that as our prompt. Here's what resulted:
Often, while minding our own business
we are swallowed by a child
curious about how the world tastes
on a neophyte tongue,
only to be spit out when we wiggle,
impatient to be about adulthood,
too abrupt with our answers
to be taste-tested.
A pity. We might
learn a lot from a short sojourn
in the maw of an innocent,
might realize that, like a bug tasted,
we are spit out into a new world,
lucky to be wakened
from our self-important dreams.
8 comments:
while minding our own business
we are swallowed by a child
curious about how the world tastes
ha i like that...as i was not thinking about a bug there...it is sad that they grow up way too fast you know....self important...key word here too...
Yes, I too like the swallowed by a child image. They do soak things in.
Mind, you, I should point out that if you venture inside my you should take overalls, gumboots and gloves.
Made me think about eating an apple and seeing only one half of the worm.
The innocence of childhood is for ever lost to most of us and we think we know the taste of everything.
Sometimes I try to think once again about the world the way I did when I was a child -- when it was all new and amazing. A phrase of Sylvia Plath's sticks in my head -- "The zoo of the new..." from a poem she wrote about her child.
I like your prompt and your poem.
That's a terrific writing prompt. I'm going to pass it onto my school teacher sister. I think she'd get some fun responses.
Have a great day. jj
I love this Pauline - it's so true. I've been guilty of wiggling when swallowed and wish I would learn my lesson.
Brian - this was a spontaneous response to the prompt. It doesn't make the best of sense and yet it says what I meant...
JCN - I shall come prepared!
OOTP - a literal translation ;)
Friko - perhaps not lost so much as forgotten... we get buried in our arrogance and it often takes a child to free us.
Thanks, Anne. I think if our childhoods had some good in them, it does us well to remember and even relive.
JJ - I'd love to know if she uses it!
Barbara - that made me chuckle. Let me know if you do ;)
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