A thing. I don't know what it means.

[pegkerr]

A woman in the middle years of her life looked up at the sky on a day that was like all the others, and yet not. She ground the flour to make her bread, and yet the bread had no more flavor than dust. She tended her children, but they wandered away, and she realized suddenly that they did not really need her in the same way that they did in the days when they were babes at her breast. She had friends, opened-hearted and true, but something plucked at her own heartstrings, stronger than any tie she had yet known. She held a hand to her brow and looked out over the desert, where the heat rippled over hot and barren sands, where it is said that one might walk for days and never see another human. The sky was lemon yellow at the horizon. The ashy taste of her bread told her that her time had now come. She scooped up handfuls of water and patted them until they were shaped like eggs, clear and yet hard as stones. These she put along with strips of dried meat into a bag of woven grass. She left the door of her hut without looking back, and walked into the desert, haven and home to none but the pitiless scorpion.

Comments

[aerden.livejournal.com]

Going on walkabout?

Whatever it means, I think it's very good, and I hope you write more of it.

Chantal

[aome.livejournal.com]

You certainly can still pack quite a punch with your writing - there's a lot in there about her feelings, in such a small space.

Are you identifying with some of the elements, too?

[misia.livejournal.com]

How much do I adore the image of her patting water into hard egg shapes? THIS MUCH. At least.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

The eggs hit me hard, too.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

SPLAT!

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

You're dethttthpicable.

[callunav.livejournal.com]

Bwah!

It was a great image, though. The piece had me worried up until that moment. Then I knew everything was some very strange value of okay.

[kijjohnson.livejournal.com]

It means you have words and they are speaking for you. It means you're writing, just not what you expected. It means you need a break from your life.

Love.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I think you should keep going with this. It's lovely. Sort of Ursula K. LeGuin meets Kelly Link meets Peg Kerr.

[argentus.livejournal.com]

Beautiful.

[pameladean]

That's gorgeous. Especially the water eggs. And it's got that mythic tone to it.

P.

[leiabelle.livejournal.com]

Ooh, this gave me chills! :D

[carol-j.livejournal.com]

Looks like you're ready for new challenges, Peg.

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

I see that most people are commenting on the writing, which is in fact lovely.

Me, I'm wondering what it has to do with the things you've been saying and feeling. Be gentle with yourself, okay?

[castiron.livejournal.com]

Very neat! I especially like the water-eggs.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Stories have different shapes. There are the ones that start "once upon a time". There are the ones that start "Sing goddess!". And then there are the ones that start "Somewhere in the middle of my life, I found myself in a darkling wood." Those are the Inferno stories, and it looks to me as if that's what you're doing.

(I have an unfinished novel that starts "'Somewhere in the middle of my life, I found myself in a darkling spaceship...' no, that won't do either, but it's the best place to start so far.")