Day 8: letters

Day 8/28

A few days ago my mother and I sat in a floor in front of her hope chest (we’re Southern so that’s a thing) looking through letters my father wrote her more than thirty years ago. We cried. Just a few months before I had read through letters addressed to my grandfather. We have a visceral connection to physical indications of memories before us. Paper and history and words and emotions and my darlings and I miss yous and letters are still more than the sum of their parts.

Consider letters for your prompt today. Maybe write one, make a piece based on one you read, play us the sound of letters being felt as they’re read.

Brittany’s letter
Tynan’s letter

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Day 7: not my usual

Day 7/28: not my usual

I’m usually very regimented in my schedule. Get up for work at the same time. Get the same cup of coffee every morning. Eat the same thing for breakfast. The waitress at the diner down the street knows me by name and knows what I’m going to order, so we skip the pretense of perusing the menu.

But today, today is something different. I skipped the diner coffee today, made some at home. Ate breakfast at home; cereal, half a grapefruit, and some yogurt. Today is different, and I skipped everything that was ‘usual’.

Brittany’s unusual
Tynan’s unusual

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Day 6: Fireflies

Day 6/28: fireflies

I used to catch fireflies in a jar when I was little, poking holes in the top so that they could breathe, and watch them light up and crawl around. I grew up just outside of DC, and in the summer there were ALWAYS fireflies around (I don’t see them often where I live now). Lightning bugs, my brother and I called them, because for just that one split second, they illuminated the world around them, like a bolt of lightning.

I found out years later that it’s actually a little chemical reaction that goes on, to make the lightning bugs glow. Bio-luminescence. But to a small, 7 year old girl, all I could see was a little lightbulb that turned on and off.

Reading about the mythology behind the fireflies later on, I learned that they used to be an almost “slang” term for a cigar; there’s a story where a mischievous fox ‘steals’ fire from the fireflies and gives it to the rest of the world; a Filipino legend says that fireflies were once ordinary flies, gifted with light by the stars so that they may guard the trees of the star apples. There are so many myths and legends about these tiny little bugs that illuminate the night, it’s amazing to me how they’ve slipped out of the legends and become just an insect that appears only at night.

Brittany's fireflies
Tynan's fireflies

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Day 5: hunted

Day 5/28: Hunted

hunt;;
to chase with the intention of catching or killing one’s prey; to drive or chase down something or someone; to search for something.

Predator or Prey?


Brittany’s hunt
Tynan’s hunt (warnings for fake blood/gore, talks about death/murder)

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Day 4: far & near

Day 4/28: far & near

Today is our first Two for Tuesday of the month! If you are new to the challenge, Two for Tuesdays are a day when we give you TWO prompts instead of one. You can do one piece based on both, two pieces (one for each) or one piece for one! We’re super freeform about it!

Far and near, close and distant. It can be the distance between two people, an item close up then far away, something just out of reach. The separation can be palpable, or more subtle.

Brittany’s Far & Near
Tynan’s Far & Near

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Day 3: breathing (breathless)

Day 3/28: breathing (breathless)

We do it so effortlessly. Breathing. Your body will actually force you to breathe, just to keep you alive. A subconscious effort, the inflating of the lungs in the chest, breathe in, breathe out, repeat repeat repeat.

Being breathless comes with a feeling of lightheaded-ness, your heartbeat thundering in your ears, racing to pump oxygen back into your bloodstream. You can feel thin, stretched out, sometimes with a ringing in your ears.

Brittany's breath
Tynan's breath

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Day 2: I Know

Day 2/28: i know

Knowledge is power. Maybe you know a secret. Maybe you repeatedly tell your mother you know something and she keeps treating you like you don’t. Maybe you’re confessing. But you know something, and you have to tell someone. i know. i know, i know, i know.

Post a link to your piece in the comment's section so we can see the results!

Brittany's knowledge
Tynan's knowledge

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