Embarrassment Happens

These are my responses to the Writober Day 2 prompts in Sounds of Words: Stress and Duration.

OctPoWriMo

I’m a little embarrassed that I didn’t present metric feet as clearly as I could this morning. While putting my words in my Excel Spreadsheet, I realized that I told you to count syllables in a line and divide by two, but that’s only correct in cases of disyllabic feet. Two of the three words I chose had three syllables and depending on how they are used, they might be anapaest or amphibrach, not iambs or trochees. But like I said, I only wanted to introduce the idea of the sounds of syllables and listening for stress and duration.

I’m also a little embarrassed that I ran into problems in my duration column of the spreadsheet trying to put in short and long dashes. The Excel program wanted those to be functions, so I changed to putting a small “s” for short and a capital “L” for long.

If I had taken the time to try out my posts before now, I could have caught these errors, but I also might not be having as much fun trying out the prompts now. A little embarrassment may be worth the discoveries along the way. And, lucky for me, I can go back and fix my errors in the prompt post, and I already did.

With No Embarrassment

I would dance in the bank parking lot
on bubblegum-flavored days
and sing loudly everywhere I am
belting banana-peel-slippery tunes
and wear a costume everywhere I go
wings in the grocery store
capes in the library
a sequined collar, jabot, and spats to dinner
not hearing backhanded compliments
while bouncing through
chemical-pine-air-freshener rooms.

Non-conformity takes effort.
Am I done rebelling, or too tired?
Not wanting to be uncomfortable.
Not wanting to stand out anymore.
I’m more comfortable being comfortable,
and I’m comfortable staying unseen.

Writober Flash Fiction

Vanishing Embarrassment

Sabrina ran into the fog, holding the skirt of her damp, torn gown, the punch stain soaking into her chest. Laughter from the party followed her until the lights were only small fuzzy blurs behind her. She slowed down to catch her breath, and grabbed onto a branch to steady herself. The branch pulled away. A featureless face shaped from the fog. Her scream stopped in her throat as her lips appeared on the face before her. She whimpered as her finger appeared at the lips, signaling her to quiet. She couldn’t run as she saw her sparkling shoes step from the fog. Soon she wouldn’t feel embarrassed anymore. She wouldn’t feel anything at all.

Halloween Photography Challenge

Today is overcast and the construction workers are back at it next door, so I decided to work in the mirrorworld today. For those of you who may not know, the mirrorworld is a closet where I have mirrors and string-lights set up. The mirrors create depth of field and the lights are what I photograph. Each light takes the shapes of my hand-cut paper filters, one of many techniques of my generative photography art form I call “Light-forming photography.”

For today’s image, I started by exploring the phrase “egg on your face.” I made a sort-of egg-splattered shape, then I put a kaleidoscope over it while I took pictures to recreate a disembodied feel of ego death.