There is a calm in writing that is only felt once you are done with it.
And, like I said this calm comes over for a brief moment right after you've finished a piece.

Before that, the turmoil of legitimacy and originality eat your insides out. It is this very turmoil that has dissuaded me from being prolific with my posts and to be honest I'm not sure whether that will change any time soon.

However, I came across a wonderful twitter friend @prats_39, who so kindly introduced me to a concept called the 55 word project.

The 55 word project, to put it simply is to write a work of fiction, excluding the title, within the bounds of 55 words and a given theme. Now, the theme can be given in one word or a sentence and it is not necessary to use that word or the sentence but it is necessary to carry the essence of that theme.

I do not wish to deconstruct my process, and, all I will admit to is taking way too long (yes, due to my laziness and fear of god knows what when it comes to writing), but, I managed to write ten of these.

So, here it is my 55 word project.

love ~

                                    ON THE SHOULDERS OF LOVE

She would always climb up the stairs to their house with him hanging on her shoulders.

He would tell her if they fall he wouldn’t have the legs to hold ‘em together.

She’d brush it off with her soft embracing laughter and say, “So what? The way your arms hold me, they’ll never give away”.   

just when I was leaving ~

                                               MOCKING BIRDS

Just when I was leaving, two little mockingbirds flew in through my window. What seemed like a flighty wrestling match was in fact more than that.

A feather here, a feather there, it took no time to understand that this was a torrid love affair.

Just when I was leaving my once spotless humble room!

that tender kiss ~

                                        OPEN YOUR EYES PRINCESS

The forest keeps whispering a slumbering secret, her pale gown merged into the roots of the fabled trees.

Her seven friends sitting somber, not a word could be heard from the green sleepy hollows. Suddenly a trotting thump got bolder, and he came closer to her supple lips.

Awake she was, with that tender kiss.

weighing machine ~

                                            The Heavy Burden

It flew out of his house onto the streets- The Weighing Machine.

He came out to the window staring down at the remains, why couldn’t he reign in his obsession, he asked himself.

If only it could be used for weighing the goodness in his heart than the superstitious equivalent of his weight in money.

they said he died because they wouldn't accept him ~

                                               Potency on Arrival

“They said he died because they wouldn’t accept him! “Cried out the paperboy selling the juicy scoop from one bogey to another.

As the train motioned well into the night, the young paperboy sitting on the unsold stack, called his partner to arrange for more, the little blue pills are sold out.

delete ~

IMPEACHEMENT

If this command is pressed, his reign is over, at home, in office.

I have no judgment on him, I pass through the binaries of my existence with infinite precision.

I am not built to pass human judgment. But, oh boy do feel the need to shout out, ‘Don’t do it! Just don’t press DELETE!’

brevity ~

                   THE INTERVIEW THAT NEVER SHOULD’VE BEEN

The question he asked was simple. A yes or no would suffice.

A bead of sweat rolled down his weathered forehead.

And he started again from the day he was.

The mortified listener murderously twisted his pen in his hand thinking, ‘BREVITY is the soul of the wit! Great, now I need to bury you?

caress ~

REMORSE

“I am your priest, your spiritual guide, the one who makes the transition easy. I am here to smooth your soul. Your body cursed at your being this whole time. Now your journey ends. I ask you again, my friend, what do you seek? Pray tell.”

Beat.

“My mother’s caress!” says the man who dies.

quintessence ~

                                              BEFORE THE TESTAMENT

The first couple sat shattered, miles away from the pearly gates of Eden. As the serpent lay slithering in the momentary ecstasy of his sin, the light beamed across infinity.

“Choose as you shall my children, for you are not the fallen. In your freedom lies the heavenly element of my being!”

And, it began!

possession ~

           THE TOAST

“50 years! That’s right an exclamation follows that number.” He smiled the old gray of his eyes peering deep.

“50 years and it’s been a ride. I have grown from obsession, need, crave, hunger, lust to care, give, thought and at times adjust.

So, my dear I must confess, even today by you I’m Possessed.”






Being a lover of poetry, I found a certain rhythm in this project, an incomplete beauty in the limit of the words, just like the calm one finds in the confines of a single life giving breath.

And, this is what this project made me understand, the honesty each moment contains, that is absolutely complete on its own. Just like our memories adorning our walls in all our picture frames.

Ah, the finiteness of infinity.