Tourmaline .’s Halloween Challenge

Today’s prompt is “desserts.” Last year I had fun thinking of desserts literally and creating Halloween chocolates. This year, I want to think of desserts more figuratively. Using the definition of dessert as the sweet last course of a meal, I started thinking about the finality of dessert—a sweet ending, a final enticement—like a Jinn’s cursed wish or a deal with the devil. I thought of one of those huge rainbow suckers, but with a poison symbol on it, or the poisoned apple covered in caramel. I set up the floating studio since this may be the last warm sunny day in a while, and I may be taking my final lake swim of 2022.

New Poem

OctPoWriMo

Today’s prompt is Perfectly Imperfect and talks about the concept/philosophy of Wabi-sabi: a Japanese aesthetic concept that finds beauty and serenity in objects, landscapes, designs, etc., that are simple, imperfect, and impermanent (dictionary.com).

I was discussing the problems of perfectionism with my parents just yesterday. It’s hard to say if its nature or nurture—genetic, psychological programming,or both—but I got it from both of my parents.

This idea of the perfectly imperfect ties in nicely with finding the confidence in fear and the fear in confidence. The fears of the Halloween season are fears of the unknown: fear of the dark, fear of monsters, fear of nightmares, fear of death, the undead, spooks, frights, and surprises. Confidence comes through knowing what to expect, through experience, learning, shining light into the dark, being prepared. But a perfectionist wants, even needs the impossible. No matter how prepared, the perfectionist will find imperfection, and thus finds the fear in confidence, and is confident of her fear.

dVerse Poets Pub

Today’s Poetics prompt is about names for the October full moon. Sarah gave us a list of what this moon is called around the world to inspire our poem.

I once wrote a song called “I Want to Swim to the Moon.” It talks about the full moon in June. Hard to believe that this year, I could have been singing about the full moon in October—doesn’t have the same ring to it. 😃

Ways We See The Same Moon

Thick fall vines flow from the blackberry moon.
Berries shriveled and long gone, its thorns pierce
searching, hungry flesh, drawing blood
staining its round, white, blemished face.
The blood moon haunts the horizon
flushed with pride of its scarred visage.
The horrors it has evoked in the crazed haze,
planting seeds of discord, the seed fall moon
spreads, lighting the way for the wind
to scatter and spray dreams through the dark.
The harvest moon collects the aging and decaying,
perfect in their grace of time’s ravages, ripe
and sweet in their browning blemishes, fueling
an ice moon’s warm glow.

Writober Flash Fiction

I couldn’t find any information about today’s inspirational image of a young woman being held in a chair by scary arms. Here’s the opening of my story “The Candy Behind the Curtain:”

Taffy loved spending time in Mr. Kaffrey’s old-timey Candy Shoppe. If rainbows had a smell, they would smell like opening the Candy Shoppe door. And they would sound like the bell over the door. Every wall was floor to ceiling shelves with beautiful glass jars containing candies of every color, shape, and size. Mr. Kaffrey had his candy’s coordinated by country. He imported confections from every country in the world. Taffy had to beg her parents for a new globe because she learned some of the countries in the store weren’t on her dad’s old globe, and the computer wasn’t as fun as spinning the world around and stopping it with her finger. It was because of the Candy Shoppe she was fascinated with regime change and borders.
But there was one border that fascinated her the most, and it was within Mr. Kaffrey’s Candy Shoppe itself. In one corner there was a thick velvet curtain hanging from a golden rod. She never saw anyone come out from behind it, but when she subtly lurked by it, pretending to be fascinated by the strange black salt licorice shapes from Sweden that smelled and looked like tar on a hot summer roof, she heard sounds behind the curtain, happy sounds, like laughing and clapping. She imagined kids tasting new candies, the best candies. She salivated imagining a giant chocolate tiger roaming around, or the biggest gummy worm giving kids rides. She wanted to see back there so badly it became an aching need. It was all she could think about.