This image - writing prompt from Willow at Magpie Tales kicked me in the gut. While you might think that is a dramatic, horrid thing, I find it an invigorating way to start a writing session. I got even angrier when one of the first poems I read by someone also using it as a prompt sounded vaguely disrespectful. Ah, joy in disdain... and out popped this poem.
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I wonder if
you would have
found the red numbers
scrawled across
your forehead
indecent
not to mention
the lowly price
the 2011 world
is placing
upon your
brow
Your eyes
speak to me
of pricelessness
not bargain basement
leftovers, with
Harry mumbling,
"Shirley, try to
get a buck 99 for it."
I pause, midpoem
angry that anyone
would call you an it.
I pause, midpoem
and pray no one tries
to sell me for a pittance
I pause, midpoem
to make sense of
the metaphors
yearning to be poured
from my fingers
I choose
to stop
my guides,
indignance
indecence
silence the
keyboard
+++
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© 2011
Julie Jordan Scott
A truly powerful write... sending your heart's message far and wide.
Posted by: Reflections | June 20, 2011 at 09:19 AM
Beautiful. It makes me sad that the only "worth" is what can be gotten for the frame. I buy them for the photos and get lost in what I try to imagine was the world of the photographees.
Posted by: DebbyMc | June 20, 2011 at 11:13 AM
I agree with Debby Mc...Looking at old photographs can send our imagination to far corners...
Posted by: Sioux Roslawski | June 20, 2011 at 01:05 PM
Yes, you expressed so well the indignity of the situation. A proud beautiful woman reduced to less than two dollars. But take heart. At least she wasn't thrown out with the trash as most old photos eventually do!
Posted by: Stafford | June 20, 2011 at 01:14 PM
Indirectly you also express the callousness of this lady's descendants. Perhaps through the poetry the price on the glass belies the true value of her image.
Rick
Posted by: Rick | June 20, 2011 at 07:35 PM
Worth is a strange word - it doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. :) Good piece!
Posted by: Tumblewords | June 20, 2011 at 09:33 PM
Perhaps this beautiful woman had no direct descendants. I have none. One or two of my nieces will remember me, and then...
I also pray no one tries to sell me for a pittance.
Well said.
— K
Kay, Alberta, Canada
An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel
Posted by: Kay Davies | June 20, 2011 at 10:16 PM
I might be happy to be remembered with even less..I like your multi-leveled poem! Who will write one for us?
Posted by: Lyn | June 21, 2011 at 06:44 AM
"I stop, midpoem"... interesting take and I whole heartedly agree. I would venture to say that many of us "Magpiers" felt this way towards the $1.99 price tag! I think she will be much loved at Willow Manor now. And all these poems sent her way ... I love the thought of that!
Posted by: Margaret | June 21, 2011 at 07:21 AM
some believe a soul is captured in an image - certainly there is soul in your poem
(sometimes it is okay to be light all the same)
I enjoyed your poem!
Posted by: Isabel Doyle | June 21, 2011 at 08:16 AM
Creative, unusual response to the prompt...indignation instead of sadness. Well done.
Posted by: Ann Grenier | June 21, 2011 at 04:38 PM
I, too, hope no-one tries to 'sell me for a pittance.'
Posted by: Rinkly Rimes | June 21, 2011 at 08:03 PM
Yes, indecent, indeed. Nice piece, Julie.
Posted by: tess kincaid | June 22, 2011 at 09:16 AM
A few inches to the right, and she would really have had a price on her head.
Posted by: Martin H | June 22, 2011 at 11:25 AM
I really like your take on this prompt. I once accidentally gave nude photos to Goodwill (I hid them in something I accidentally gave away) I really DON'T want to know the price on my head lol
Posted by: Candice Daoud | June 22, 2011 at 12:56 PM
How true it is that when the memory of us is gone - we are worth very little - but such is life or indeed death.
Anna :o]
Posted by: Anna :o] | June 23, 2011 at 05:10 PM