Thread: September Challenge - "Erase"

Candid Petunia, our lasr month's winner has chosen the subject of

Erase

for our next challenge.

Remember that you may approach the subject in whatever way you wish, though of course site rules apply. If you are unsure of the challenge rules please read the 'stickies' at the top of the board, it is disheartening to disqualify people for things like a trivial edit, but rules do apply and will be applied.

You have two weeks to post entries. Challenge will close on the 6th October.

Please make sure that your work is properly formatted before pressing the submit button. Work edited after posting may be excluded from the challenge.

Beyond Goodbye
by Phyllis Stewart

Sorrow seeps into my seams,

Extinguishing
dying embers of joy,

Diluting
memories dissolved by overstirring,

Blurring
the fragile fading image of your face,

Draining away
through unknowing eyes still searching for your smile.

Soon nothing of you will remain...
I will be empty.

copyright © 1993 Phyllis Stewart

Erase.

Jet black silhouette fading to grey
Time passing, ever moving
Lost in the monotony
Clock hands turning
Pendulum swinging
Cigarettes burning
Embers dying, as always
Shadows engulfing thoughts of history
Memories neither clear nor true
Faint grey silhouette lessening to white
Blinding, all concealing
Clarity evermore.

Tilly.

seemingly

Seal away your reasons and take aback your tears
you're just another spoof emereging from a drobe
a murky shade of grey a shadow in disguise
you're only seen to be!
to quickly fade away
you think you are aloof but then you lose control
your inner voice is teasing wanting to come undone
the pressure has it pounding with just another weight
in silence you stand sole
in sound you come a drole
your games of prolls are false
your demena is intense
your failures are your owns
you're second to no ones
a privilege that came but quickly ran away
a pencil on a block
a random book of plots
a past without a name
''erase and start again''!!
something or so you phrased
an effort worthy if!
courage had a face
but if fake is what it takes
then fiddle lests its sake
timing has out of date
the riddle of this trait
and so the take is right
and
victory is late.

I walk the shoreline
at breaking dawn
on a crisp
late winter morn,
numbed to my knees
by frigid brine,
hoping to freeze
my overtaxed mind.

Tender lips of tide
kiss my steps
and quickly hide
every trace
I'd been there,
each grain of sand
restored with care.
Tracks of my lone
intrusion erased;
the sea always rights
what's been displaced.

How I wish the sea
as company
everywhere I amble,
for then there'd be
no memory
of missteps made
so senselessly.

I abhor treading
this beach alone
seeking to exile
memories
etched in stone -

indelible
for eternity,
forever consuming
inner harmony -

if only my memory
were made of sand
then unwanted footprints,
upon demand,
would be effaced
by my certain hand
leaving only those
I could withstand.

Erase
by Sam E. K.

Lead crow flapped its wings and flew,
Fled to the heaven for ideas long gone,
Bed so lonely and cold by myself,
Shred up my pages and hope thereon.

Knocking on my pencil to get in,
Flocking birds to peck at my brain,
Mocking up at me from the desk,
Locking an image in order to feign.

Blow the confusion from off my paper,
Snow that spread to hide the depiction,
No longer what needed to be drawn,
Beux of today just a work of fiction.

one moment in time
millennials shan't erase
hiroshima fell

Are you sure?

I had an old flash drive I no longer needed
So I thought I'd give it to my daughter, Nell
It wasn't enough that my stuff be deleted
I needed to format the whole thing as well
For she needed FAT which is what Windows uses
But I'm running Linux with EXT2
I've asked her to switch but she always refuses
Says Windows is best for what she needs to do.

I'd "christened" my laptop with Evian water
But hoped that just letting it dry would suffice
I still had to format that drive for my daughter
I borrowed my husband's without thinking twice
Godzilla was rampaging on his screensaver
I logged in and typed the reformat command
It asked was I sure, my resolve didn't waver
But things didn't work out the way I had planned.

At first all seemed normal till I tried to exit
The system locked up and I had to reboot
It said "No drive found." -- that's not what I expected
I'd made my poor spouse's computer kaput.
He had a big project that he had been coding
Before he went outside to mow the front lawn
Now I had an ominous sense of foreboding
As I realized that his work was all gone.

Reacting predictably to my admission
With frustration, anger but mostly dismay
He said I at least could have asked his permission
Though he probably would've just told me, "Okay."
It took him all night and on into the morning
To undo the damage from my careless deed
The next time I read that same "Are you sure?" warning
I'll double check everything then I'll proceed

Loss or Gain?

The sharp pain drives another thought away,
0r this time was it memory I lost?
One or the other, but I cannot say
which one it was. But still I pay the cost.

The cost of living for another day.
What’s happening is what I fear the most.
My mind is turning gradually to clay.
Too soft to carry weight or even host

a small conclave of memories that stay.
My memories of you turn into frost.
A frost which melts as if in sun’s bright ray,
then turns to mist and fades ‘til they are lost.

Dear God, if God there be, please hear my plea
Don’t take my thoughts of---of---of---Who is she?

The final light has come…
dissipating now.

Despondent eyes lying true on
the night forward on...
Light behind,
erasing now,
coming nothing but ether
gloom.

Sweet Damascus Rose, to make
memories fade to blur nothings.
Sweet Lies, to temper the spirit.

Poor weary eyes,
this is Time’s End...
Poor weary eyes,
gaze forever on past eras then back
once again onward...
The place of glazed eyes
and clayed minds?
Why, the very soil you tread!

In all of this, it shall all come to pass
and pass away also.

All failures of man to pass away.
All iniquities of the dust to pass away.
Indeed, this too shall pass away.

From the fine dust, gathered up,
smell fresh death's touch,
until white washed
from nocturnal trial, then dawn break
later in time.

Then... reverse!

The final night has come,
dissipating now.

Smiling eyes lying true on
the light forward on!
Night behind,
erasing now,
coming nothing but beaming
rays.

Sweet Velvet Rose, to make understanding
clear.
Sweet Truth, to lift the spirit.

Oh gleaming eyes,
this is Time's Beginning!
Oh gleaming eyes,
gaze forward to eras forever;
never looking back!
the place of colored eyes
and beaming minds?
Why, the new place where you will tread!

And this shall never pass away.

Here among the brambles and the witchgrass,
and the keening sway of the seedheads,
I turn the earth with a fresh spade

and the elder ground yields its heart.
The red clay bleeds onto trinities of clover,
stains the tithe of Christwhite blooms

amid the worship of hum and flutter,
the whisper of prisms into silences grey
and deep as doubts of God. I sing you,

my soul, my daughter, to the starless
dark of Sleep. Be still. Be restful.
Know my grief is the irony of sparrowsong

you will hear that first morning you feel
forgotten, lifting wild, like light,
into the tall tangles of the birthing field.

There I was, the zenith of old
Light beamed from the skies above
There it was, happiness in me
Then in a flash, all was gone

All of it lost, the shines of gold
From its perch, gone was the dove
There was only chaos I see
The damage can't be undone

All of it was so quick, so bold
Face mashed with a boxer's glove
in a speed that was beyond me
My breathing gone; movements, none

Now like one with his birthright sold
For me there was no more love
From this darkness I cannot flee
Then vultures come, one by one.

Dad turns away and shuffles off, deadpan,
a hidden smile in his paper skin.
It’s number two of a limited repertoire,
no more time for practice.

I watch him go, his trail in the dust
steadily blowing over in the hot wind,
the photo he left fading in my grasp.
Already he’s almost gone.

My World A Stygian Darkness
Silencing women since the beginning of time (the erasure of an identity)

Who am I? Do I have a voice?
A hundred times I am bid
to silence. A hundred times my choice
has been selfishly rigged.
My self is lost, I am no more me.
Who am I? Am I really free?

I am dominantly ruled by another,
My identity remains subdued.
I am kept painfully smothered,
And I am chained to solitude.
Will this unease ever abate?
Is this the one, my only fate?

My sanguine hopes are never slaked,
My beauteousness is flaunted.
I am desired for my vestal sake,
But otherwise remain unwanted.
Where do I come from? Where do I go?
How can life deliver such a cruel blow?

'Tis my life, but not my own,
I am bade a discreet stillness.
My future is a murky zone,
My world a stygian darkness.
I ask again, with despairing fay,
'Tis my life: Do I have a say?

In arithmetic, he wasn't strong.
This math quiz was taking so long.
It was hard to divide.
Still, he tried till he cried,
but the answers kept coming out wrong.


He would solve and immediately doubt
if he'd taken the most proper route.
He' retry, but alas,
by the end of the class,
his eraser was simply worn out.


The bell rang. The quiz was now due,
but his sheet was a sad sight to view.
There was nothing but air
in assorted spots where
the eraser wore all the way through.


The tests were collected and sent
to the teacher for grading. She went
through each page in the stack
and then handed them back.
He saw his grade: ninety percent!


He pondered his luck with a frown...
To the head of the class from class clown?
Was he smart? Well not quite,
every one he got right
had shown through from the next paper down!