Screams All The Way Down

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Fear of Loss of Autonomy by Maria L. Berg 2024

These are my responses to the Writober prompt post Fear of Loss of Autonomy.

OctPoWriMo

Today is Quadrille Monday at dVerse Poets Pub and the prompt word is “light.”

For today’s poem, I was sure that my Artist Magnetic Poetry Kit would have the word “light,” but to my shock and horror, it did not. So I wrote “light” on seven stickers and got to work. My new “light” magnets inspired me to create new hyphenated light words.

Breaking Through the Fear of Loss of Autonomy

I paint with light
I color and form raw white light
compose as wild silhouettes appear
smear passion like deep water-light
explore bold, abstract metaphor-light
suffer absurd dazzle & shimmer
to capture movement by life-light
investigate surreal-light, breaking
the monument of the red light

Writober Flash Fiction

Screams All the Way Down

I don’t know where I am or how I got here, but I can’t move. My eyes blink. I breathe. But nothing acts under my control. I tried to breathe more deeply, but nothing happened. The air smells antiseptic, chemical. People walk by me in loose cotton pants, my eyes at knee level. I must be squatting. My muscles ache like I’m in a state of permanent cramp that will never release. It’s like I’m the human equivalent of a charlie horse, one big calf muscle locked in intense pain. I try to scream, but the scream just grows and grows in my head until its a swirl of screams within screams, gaping maws of teeth and tongues inside teeth and tongues. It’s all I can see, all I can hear. All I am is screams all the way down.

Halloween Photography Challenge

For today’s photos, I thought about the feeling of fear of loss of autonomy as a headless torso. I took that shape into the mirrorworld, and also outside, taking pictures of the security light, and light shining off the old antenna on the roof.

Happy Writober!

See you tomorrow!

Published by marialberg

I am an artist—abstract photographer, fiction writer, and poet—who loves to learn. Experience Writing is where I share my adventures and experiments. Time is precious, and I appreciate that you spend some of your time here, reading and learning along with me. I set up a buy me a coffee account, https://buymeacoffee.com/mariabergw (please copy and paste in your browser) so you can buy me a beverage to support what I do here. It will help a lot.

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