Ligo Haibun Challenge ~ Monsoon / Haze

Sami Simpleton vs the Sky

The wind howled when it rose and it pounded heavily , rivaling the loud thrumming of her heart. The rain pelted fervently, covering the pavement with a thousand sparkling diamonds. In the midst of it all she stood, much like a deranged bride, veiled with a tempest of hair -damp, dark and disheveled.

She trembled. Not from the cold. But from too much courage.

Strangely formed clouds hovered above her and she raised her face up to them, challenging them, urging them to bring it on. Cool raindrops beat against her face without mercy but the currents of air quivered with her defiance.

She leaped over puddles with such admirable grace while dodging liquid bullets with her pink parasol. The wind persisted. And she fought on, with a kind of breathless intensity that only fools could possess. She finally reached her destination, dirty and dripping wet… but quite proud of herself.

Suddenly, out of the muddy haze, the sun emerged -all bright and buttery and gloating over its triumph.

Face turning crimson, she shook her umbrella angrily towards the sky. Then she shook her head, laughed and whistled a happy tune. One day, she’ll beat the heavens to its own game.

But for now, well, it’s a bright sunny day. =)

splendid burst of gold
changing the tide of battle
piercing through the clouds

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“There was a time when we need not cultivate the earth. We loved her and she loved us. We spoke to her and she spoke to us. And that was enough. She bloomed for us like a flower and we partook of her gifts.”

“What happened, grandfather?”

“They came… Oh how they raped the earth! Prodded and slashed at her with their hoes and ploughs until she yielded. Ah yes, the earth gives and she gives but no longer can one call it a gift, but a bloody sacrifice.”

“Some said we were here first… That we must attack their villages instead of retreating to the mountains.”

“Hush, child! Speak no more of such things.” he admonished tenderly. “We aren’t like them. And though the earth has changed, remember that it loved us once. We shan’t spill blood upon her.”

Tiny violet eyes peered from behind the viridian tangle. The elf elders said that their people were facing ani… he searched for the word. Annihilation.

He watched as the humans sang and danced around the hissing burst of flames praying to their gods for rain. They looked like him, only without his pointy ears. As he walked back to his beloved woodland, he whispered to a tree. ‘Shhh… Don’t worry. They seem like good people… They’ll take care of you.’

Trees rustle
With the mournful song
Of love lost

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Ligo Haibun Challenge

Adam

I looked at her face and the silvery ball of the moon… I had never seen them so beautiful… and so far away. My fingers ached to touch them… But why can’t I? Because He said so… the murmurous voice sprang from her throat. Yes, why give angels wings then forbid them to fly? It was enough to blot out all those years of blind obedience. Ghostly strings pulled me towards her. The hairs on the back of my neck stirred; maybe the angels are keeping their vigil. Through the thick mist I felt a hundred eyes float towards me, willing me to be ashamed. But her lips were red and fragrant and sweet… as any forbidden fruit can be. Willingly, I sank my teeth into their crimson softness. And she let out a soft moan, challenging the night. In my mind I heard Him cry… a long fragmented wail of pain slit the sky. But soon the sound was lost… there was only her and the smooth delicate curve of her neck as she threw it back in total abandon. The moment I took her hand, I knew I was condemned. Even then, I already felt it… tongues of deep scarlet furiously licking at my feet.

Tomorrow we burn
but for a fleeting moment
we shall know heaven

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Ligo Haibun Challenge ~ Inspiration

They say there’s no such emotion like when a mother watches her child take those first precious steps.

I have yet to be acquainted with that feeling. But let me tell you about that time when I almost knew how it felt…

It was a morning like any other…

A movement caught my eye. Everything remained still, suspended in midair as I watched her lift one shaky foot. They touched the ground, seemingly savoring how the earth pulsated beneath them.

Then she let go…

Mama released the quad cane and with a big grin on her face, took one trembling step after another towards my grandma who stood in the kitchen stunned, oblivious of the sharp fragments of porcelain that lay shattered at her feet.

‘Look!’, Ma yelled excitedly, ‘I’m walking!’

‘Praise God!,’ my grandmother breathed. Her eyes were brilliant with tears of joy.

Then it occurred to me… for the second time, she was witnessing her child take those first precious steps.

I giggled at my mother’s stubbornness… her obstinate refusal to stick to the norm.

A month ago on that day, when my mom suffered from cerebrovascular accident (stroke) the doctors said with certainty that she’ll never walk again.

They all said it was a miracle.

I believe it was coz of the stuff my ma’s made of.

pursuing life in
relentless spirit she walks
off the trodden path

thorns on trails
they but urge us to
keep walking

恵

*
I thought I was gonna write about fantasy but ended up writing about inspiration which I don’t do very often since I’m not so good with the teary stuff. lol But this one’s a true story and I hope that everyone who reads this gets to learn something about perseverance, fortitude and optimism from my mom. Coz I sure did.

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Ligo Haibun Challenge – Peace

The day was over…

I would stand by the window and fix my eyes at the smoldering skies erupting in a nimbus of flame, its crimson ferocity reflecting the seething inferno of impotent fury screaming inside me. Earphones on, music in earsplitting volume, I’d watch in forced wonder as the setting sun spins a blazing web of fire. And I would drift off into a clandestine world… distancing myself from their pain.

But the problem with fantasy is that it’s hard to tell the beginning from the end. It kind of just swallows you and leads you on ‘til you find yourself caught in a fool’s dance… spinning round and round in a mockingly blissful rhythm ‘til your knees give way and you’re gasping for air. The red curtains close and you find yourself shrouded in perpetual darkness, staring at the obsidian sky… cold, indifferent, bereft of stars…

At his funeral, the sun began to set. And I stared at it expectantly, half hoping that it’d burn clean every last taint of violence and hurt. But no peace came… Only a bewildering net of mixed emotions… a sense of loss even. My anger evaporated.

I looked at the sky again and saw nothing but a feeble ginger haze.

Peace finally came
as the last embers of hate
fizzled within me.

恵

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Ligo Haibun Challenge – Peace

Līgo Haībun Challenge ~ Down At The Crossroads

Puta Zingara. Gypsy Whore. That’s what they called her. She knelt For hours til her knees were bruised, staring at the serene face of the Madonna. A non-believer, her mind was not in religious prayer but a persistent unholy meditation. The way she saw it, there were only two sins in this world, being born poor and being a coward.

She was at a crossroads. And both paths required courage. A higher dose of nerve than the one which propelled her hips to undulate infront of a crowd of leering men… a greater amount of fearlessness than what she needed as she deftly picked their pockets… And still, a larger measure of bravery than what had urged her to get back on her feet after they had desecrated her then innocent body.

But, which route was she going to take?

She placed a sun-bronzed hand on her firm stomach. She felt the life pulsating underneath her palm, beating in defiant protest… One drink of the strongly steeped concoction and it would be nothing more than a bloody stain… She walked away from the altar, the marble mercilessly cold against her bare feet, as though expressing its revulsion at her filth. She left the cappella with a strong resolve. The child was her talisman… No longer will she walk alone.

220 words

Down at the crossroads
Stray soul finds her companion
And was lost no more

恵

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Līgo Haībun Challenge ~ Prompt: Fortune Favours The Brave

They were an odious assembly… a female pirate, a noble and his bondsman of monstrous build. All brought together by the lure of gold… the only survivors of a crew lost from disease, the traitorous tides and an evil far more fatal – greed.

“Someone has to stay and guard the mouth of the cave.”, Lord Tybalt bellowed.

“I’ll not be hornswaggled by ye!”, the Pirate started but felt the bondservant’s knife pressed against her throat. “Take care, wench, for I may take your life, have we no need for your knowledge of the sea.”

With a nod from Tybalt, the two armed men proceeded towards the semidarkness — the walls of the cavernous shell damp, malodorous and pulsating with maleficence.

The small boat carried two chests laden with treasure but more was to be found inside. When they saw it, they were near-paralyzed by its sheer resplendence… Yet the vigorous pull of a heaving chest caused an infernal quake.

Rowing back towards the ship, the Pirate shuddered then crossed herself upon hearing her companions’ bloodcurdling screams. The fools have gone straight to the womb of Neptuna… the ferocious carnal beast of the sea, feeding on men who dared enter her lair… and bestowing riches upon those who deliver them to her.

Fortune favours the bold
Aye, but the cunning too.

220 words

Siren song of gold
Nothing inspires courage more
Than its blinding gleam.

恵

Written for Ligo Haibun Challenge

Līgo Haībun Challenge ~ Picture Prompt

Rulf lifted the woman’s lip with the tip of his sword to reveal a blunt pair of cuspids. “Human”, he growled. The snarling noise made by wolves betrayed the presence of another corpse, this time a man, judging from his clothing. Half of his head was brutally torn off; the bite-marks on his neck came from no beast known to man. Rulf recited an incantation and watched the wolves lower their heads and with soft whimpering sounds, scamper off into the forest.

“Tis the devil’s work.”, Morag spat on the immaculate ground. A mere two decades ago, who would’ve thought that such demonic creatures would come to exist? Before, it was only wolves and ruffians that prowl behind the trees. Now there are Vampires, Werewolves and the worst of the lot, the Gragonia. None claimed to have set eyes upon the fiend but the village people come to find their children missing from their beds– blood, bones and entrails telling the tale of their gruesome fate.

Rulf raised a metal-clad arm to silence his companion. His heightened sense of hearing enabling him to apprehend what the burly veteran warrior cannot. He picked up a rustling sound… a creature – heavy yet swift and of prodigious built. He nodded.

“Gragonia!” Morag let out a lusty battle cry, blades hissing from their sheaths.

220 words

What dark creatures lurk
In the treacherous thickets
Of a writer’s mind.

Līgo Haībun Challenge ~ Picture Prompt

Līgo Haībun Challenge ~ Prompt **South America

She was born in the brothels of Buenos Aires…

Sprung from the voluptuous hip of a prostitute, planted with the seed of her lustful lovers during one of their heated trysts. She was raised in a bordello amidst fervid bacchanals and intoxicated carousals… Born at a time and place where intimate body contact between an unmarried man and woman was frowned upon, she was considered an outcast and kept from the snobbish society that condemned her origins. Deemed by the arrogant upper-class as lowly and indecent, and thus whose presence was unwelcome in their sophisticated affairs, she continued to dwell amongst the creatures of the night. There, she was welcome and became a favorite. For years, her home was with the common folk and immigrants and she flourished with their love. Neither the society’s superciliousness nor narrow-minded ways were enough to prevent her from blossoming into a woman – bold, passionate, and strong. It was the 20th century when fate carried her to Paris which was swept by the tide of contemporary revolution. She was practiced, polished, perfected… and it wasn’t long before she graced the reputable dance halls of Europe. When she returned, even the Argentine aristocracy embraced her with open arms. Far from her humble roots, we know the Tango today as elegant, beautiful, a dance of the elite…

220 words

Sparks unquenched by time
Destined to engulf the world
In smoldering flames.

恵

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The Līgo Haībun Challenge ~ Prompt “Bouquet”

I sat in my mother’s kitchen, staring at the bouquet of flowers he sent – the vibrant multicolored mishmash taunting me. As I leaned back against my chair, I felt it.. that strong tide of déjà vu… only the sensation was neither sudden nor fleeting. It was more like being caught in a continuous uprising… Waves twirling, undulating… momentarily resting only for me to be held captive by the lingering aftermath. A wreck – that’s exactly what I am. I am every bit as damaged as he is, after his business plummeted to the ground, dragging along with it my dreams of a blissful marriage. He sought comfort in bottle after bottle of that wretched poison. And I, in his beatings. They were unwelcome at first… but later I found, it was my only means of atoning myself… a way to make amends for my uselessness… my inability to help him with his situation. Only in the brink of death do I attempt to escape… only at nights when he’d come so close to killing me that I’d come running back to my mother’s house. But even as I sat there I knew, I was trapped – ensnared in this vicious cycle of fear and pain and guilt and forgiveness. I packed my bags.

A bouquet of flowers… that’s all it takes…

220 words

His apology
A petal for every pain
Soon do they wither.

恵

written for The Līgo Haībun Challenge