Allez Chanson

It's okay, it'll be all right
I chanted once
after a bad dream

It's okay, it'll be all right
I panted twice
during a birthing

It's okay, it'll be all right
I counted thrice
because they left me

It might not be true
I may be alone
Can't count on you
So mote it be
Thy will be done
Prayers and pleading
Fail me

But I keep my head down
Grit my teeth hard
Believe in myself
I'll see it through.

It's okay, it'll be all right
I screamed once
after a bum scene

It's okay, it'll be all right
I shouted once
during a day dream

It's okay, it'll be all right
Going like hell
I see the light's green

_____
Copyright 2014 Femme Malheureuse
@ApparatusMag #NaPoMo 2014 Prompt 5
Graphic: Leo Reynolds via Flickr

Gratia

Soprano woven beauty
spun on
magic emerged
round and round
over and over

Sang to me
a lullabye
offering childish joy
and comfort

How was I to know
it was a portent
a promise that hailed
far into the future?

And now backward
beauty reaches
past reminder
future lost
but grace discovered
in farewell
sung for you

_____
Copyright 2014 Femme Malheureuse
@ApparatusMag #NaPoMo 2014 Prompt 4
Inspiration: Schubert's Ave Maria (Latin)
Graphic: zeldman via Flickr - modified

Scion

Winging here and there
he is bright light
a golden presence
fleeting

Only once and caught
he was slack shadow
a hidden herald
moving

Kicking thus and slow
he was sleep's wake
a potent promise
waiting

Birthed once and out
he is wild whim
a distracted angel
crying

Stealing mine and more
he is great glee
a soul thief
offspring

_____
Copyright 2014 Femme Malheureuse
@ApparatusMag #NaPoMo 2014 Prompt 3
Inspiration: Page 22, House of the Spirits, by Isabel Allende
Graphic: shazbot via Flickr

Unregrettable

The lure was sweet
Sensual
Seductive

The scent was hellish
Heady
Heavenly

The texture was unctuous
Unearthly
Unrelenting

The taste was rich
Romantic
Releasing

Please understand
I could not help myself
Caving in like a
Broken lawn chair
I'm so sorry
For breaching
Your faith in me

But I don't regret
Eating your chocolate

_____
Copyright 2014 Femme Malheureuse
@ApparatusMag #NaPoMo 2014 Prompt 2
Graphic: sarahxic via Flickr

Taken

It takes years
of empty evenings

It takes decades
of unanswered calls

It takes dozens
of counseling sessions

It takes many
too many explanations

It takes one
but one lucid moment

To realize
the single lonely truth

It takes little
to realize

You've taken it
all of it with you.

_____

Copyright 2014 Femme Malheureuse

@ApparatusMag #NaPoMo 2014 Prompt 1

Graphic: joshwept via Flickr

Saturday

Her face was a question unvoiced, an eyebrow cocked as she passed the black-and-white image to her mother.

"Oh. He was a friend."

"Was?"

Silence pressed for an answer that reason wouldn't offer. The photo fluttered between clenched fingers as an answer formed.

"He died in an accident later the same later the same night—morning, really.”

“You remember this night? Ah—I probably wouldn’t forget a friend with such crazy hair.”

“He was a friend, and he died that night. That was the last picture of him, taken by my boyfriend on a Saturday evening at a favorite hangout.”

She took the photo back from her mother, on whose face some unnamed emotion lingered.

Only a knot between her greying brows hinted at more than neutral disinterest. The older woman adjusted her reading glasses, her face resuming placidity as she fingered through the shoebox of photos.

A cellphone chimed, causing her daughter to leap up to take the call in another room. Faint laughter suggested the younger woman was adequately preoccupied, allowing a hand graced with age spots to pull that one photo out of the box.

Those cheekbones, those lips—so like her daughter’s. How could she ever forget him?
__________
Copyright © 2014 Femme Malheureuse 
Words: 199
Originally submitted to Flash Fiction - Madi Merek dd. 22-FEB-2014
Word Prompt: Saturday | Photo prompt: origin unknown

Valentine

“I screwed up. I’m sorry.”

“That’s the last thing I expected from you, when you said you wanted to meet me after all this time.”

“The look in your eyes and in his that night has haunted me for so long.”

“How so? I don’t recall him at all from that night.”

“He was there when I answered the door to you, standing there with those lovely pink blooms and a Valentine’s Day card. He heard heard me turn you down.”

“Oh.”

“I never told you because I didn’t want to hurt your pride any more than I already had. We never really spoke openly again.”

“It’s okay, it’s been water over the dam. Others hurt me far more after that night.”

“We’ve all been hurt by life if we truly lived. My pain began that night.”

“Your profile suggested you weren’t with him any longer.”

“We’ve been done a long time. That night he looked so smug, arrogant, like he’d won at a game. It should have told me everything. I should have shown him the door.”

“And now?”

“I won’t screw up this Valentine’s Day. Come on over to my place.”

“My eyes look happy this time, yes?”
__________
Copyright © 2014 Femme Malheureuse 
Words: 200
Originally submitted to Rebecca Grace Allen's Sinful Sunday Flash Fiction - Valentine's Day Edition 09-FEB-2014
Word Prompt: Valentine | Photo prompt: origin unknown