I write down butterflies for you

Pen them down with adverbs and metaphors

Experiment

Testing testing

My Prose Keeps Turning Into Poetry

7/15/19

We were young and you were brash. 

The wind was blowing and I couldn’t quite see

To follow your steps for you

Were leaving me. 

If I stay I stay 

And if you leave you leave 

This poetry was a letter 

About me who needs to grieve.

This poetry was a letter.

The Meandering Adventures of Q and Charlie: Mo’ or Less Kudzu

“I can’t believe this!”

Q screamed in frustration.

“I can.”

Charlie stared dolefully over the city, looking for all the world as though he’d chosen to perch in the kudzu monster that was currently, and excruciatingly slowly, digesting them. Kudzu vines tangled across their chests constricting every movement and subtly dragging them to the Mokudzu’s gaping cavernous mouth.

Mo. Mo. MMMO. At the last rustling gasp a gust of wind carried the smell of decaying animal carcasses and plant matter and trash and garbage, and whatever else people had thrown off the highway into the kudzu to be forgotten forever. A system that worked beautifully until a chemical rain came through and suddenly the kudzu became Mokudzu.

Animals started disappearing, and the homeless population and the children refused to walk on certain parts of the sidewalk, and then finally some kids at the University filmed the ‘urban legend of alive kudzu’ and caught one of the Mokudzu snagging unsuspecting hawks, cardinals, and crows out of the air with it’s kudzu tentacles.

The zoology department was busy that year.

“Aren’t you even going to try?”

“You know how I feel about burning these things. We still don’t know the extent to which they can feel pain. There’s still so much to discover…,” Charlie trailed off wistfully before snapping his fingers, eliciting a tiny harmless spark that quickly burned away, to Qs everlasting disappointment. “Why don’t you just, you know,” Charlie jerked his head in what she supposed was an approximation of one her powers. She felt a bit insulted and allowed her frustration to color her response.

“Because it takes so long, and you know that. We’d be eaten by then. Plus, when I suggested an air ball you almost had a conniption.” Q pitched her voice mockingly and trembled her lower lip, “But what about it’s feeeeelllliiinngs. You could huuurt it! I’d rather be eaten aliiive,” she wailed with a Southern Swoon.

Charlie grinned at her, “That was pretty good.”

Q rolled her eyes at him fondly, “Thanks, I’ve been practicing in my head for the past hour.”

“Do you want to hear mine?” Charlie bobbled his head, “I can control air to the molecular level but my powers are either too strong or take a long time to work, so I’m just as trapped as that handsome, and charming, and patient Charlie. Did I mention how cool his powers were?”

“Powers you won’t use, so you’re just as useless as-”

Mo. Mo! MMMMmmMMO!*

“-I am,” Q trailed off. The mokudzu was releasing her and a quick glance to Charlie showed it was doing the same to him.

Q stared at the kudzu beast in surprise.

The mokudzu opened what Q assumed were eyes, and she had the eerie feeling of being glared at, before it stilled absolutely.

A calm breeze rustled through the kudzu leaves and the nearby trees that had yet to be claimed by thick twisting mokudzu vines.

Charlie turned to face Q staring at the whisper quiet ground by his feet. He rubbed the back of his neck,

“Um, I’m sorry for what I said in there about you.”

Q felt a twinge of affection for her on and off partner against weirdness.

“Thanks. For the record I’m sorry too.”

Charlie looked up at her from under his lashes,

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Now stop being weird-”

“-or else you’ll have to vanquish me?” He finished easily.

Q scoffed, “Smart mouth”.

In the distance the sun began to rise over Charlotte and with it the need to go home. Still the duo found themselves lingering.

‘This night ended okay’, Q thought to herself.

 

*Roughly translates to: Shut up. SHUT UP! SHUUUT-UPPPP! (clearly a reference to Chandler from FRIENDS but the reference was lost to them since neither Charlie nor Q speak mokudzuese.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welp, that didn’t go as planned.

The plan was for me to be set for life with a stable career and income and the security and future that comes with it.

But uh…

Well…I’m still processing it. But, instead of me lying in bed curled up in a ball, terrified by the unknown, uncontrollable future and my place within it like I have been this past month, I’m going to try something different.  Have I turned into a hermit who’s afraid of seeing someone I might know? Sure. However, I’m a hermit with an internet connection.  And I know I’ve done this whole super upbeat ‘this is it guys, I’m really going to pay attention to this website thing’ before but eh I’m back at it again.

Hopefully I’ll see you later,

Back to the landmines covered by a field of glads and callas.

Obvious problem.

That I didn’t think of beforehand. In my eagerness to get my idea “out there”, I failed to visualize the characters. I know what they’re like personality-wise, but I don’t have solid characteristics for the characters physically. Perhaps because I thought I had more time.

So that’s what I’m giving myself. Time.

I’m going to keep trying in the meanwhile.

Back to the drawing board!

-GC

Chapter 1. Meet Charlie

Quinta smiled as she felt the sun beam down on her. It was a majestic day in Charlotte. The Queen City’s skyline shined and shimmered in the early light. A sweet breeze, rose from the ground as she flew over her favorite park. Already people below her were walking their dogs, children were playing on the playground equipment. They squealed up at her in delight. She waved as she passed over. Sometimes, on slow mornings she’d land and stir up weak dust devils for them to jump through.

She inhaled deeply and flew on.

One day, she hoped that there would be a way to capture an experience in its entirety in order to relive it. She wanted to remember the way pond glistened. She wanted to capture the cool early morning May wind; the way it played with her cloak, and nipped at her cheeks. She wanted to remember this sense of satisfaction after capturing two villains last night and having them neatly wrapped up for CMPD. She wanted to remember seeing Charlie hunched over an anthill.

Wait…

She floated over on a westerly breeze, her feet hovering a few feet above the grass.

“No.”

Charlie grinned up at her from his crossed legged position on the ground. He looked refreshed and at ease. The flames on his head flickered vibrantly. Ants marched in front of him in a smart efficient line.

“Yes,” he countered happily.

Quinta shook her head, and hovered upwind for a moment simply observing her ally as he muttered to himself…and the ants.

Charlie, was in charge of the Greenville portion of South Carolina. They’d met when they were eight years old. He had skinned knees, and she had a bruised lip after protecting a younger child in The Program, and they’d formed a fast, unbreakable bond. She knew because the Program directors had tried to break it. She’d destroyed her room at her house with a tornado on a sky-blue day. He told her later that he set fire to a field of crops. They never quite went back home again. Quinta blinked hard. She was glad her mask was still in place. Hoping to distract herself she asked the obvious in the most dubious tone she could muster.

“Fire powers give you control over fire ants?”

The flames on his head flickered a ruddy orange-red.

“Yes, they will! Just wait!”

Charlie was always enthusiastic about everything. It could be exhausting, but his enthusiasm was a great counter to her pragmatism. He went back to muttering to the ants, one of which looked up at him before turning on its way. Or maybe it saw a kernel of duck feed. Who knew! They were ants!

Quinta floated there for a moment, considering. Even if Charlie could train fire ants would they be any help to him? His hair was made of flames. Wouldn’t the heat burn the ant? And what about fights? Charlie’s superhero outfit was basically a long-sleeved turtleneck, some worn out jeans, and a pair of trusty old boots. Nothing he wore to fight was new. ‘Why should it be? It’s just going to get destroyed in the fight later,’ he claimed when she asked him about it years ago. The ant would get charred to a crisp, or fall off.

She sighed softly. This was a great distraction but they needed to head on if they were going to get good seats at this year’s Piedmont Atlantic Conference. There were so many things that they needed to discuss. The Triad was coming by to discuss the recent spate in burglaries at Universities in their area. The Triangle would be there this afternoon. And even Chattanooga was coming with Asheville through the mountains, with news about how Knoxville was recovering. Maybe she’d get a good seat by ATL this year. Last year she sat by Durham, who spent the whole night arguing with Chapel Hill. When she suggested that maybe one of them should move, they both jumped on her in each other’s defense and she really wanted to avoid that this year. Not that ATL was any better. He only cared about two things: Atlanta and being a superhero. She should reach out to some other cities or states. Maybe this was the year she did so.

Rotating towards a near gust, she called out,

“Tell the Great Pumpkin I said hi.”

She could hear the smirk in his voice as he spoke to the ants,

“Don’t listen to her! Ya’ll’re doing great! Now let’s try Alpha formation again!”

35. Compromise

So here’s what I’ll do.  I’m going to rewrite number 33. “Meet Charlie”, the way I see it in my head, but as text. And I hope you’ll tell me what you think!

34. Doubt.

So my drawing skills are not nearly where I’d like them to be.  However, my writing skills are pretty okay. Would it be terrible if I just wrote a book instead? I’m a bit frustrated with how long it would take me to do this, by drawing. Perhaps, rather than fighting myself (and my lack of ability) I should just rely on my strengths. I could do this.

Apologies!

Hi! So clearly I need to set a schedule for the comic! I’m probably going to experiment, but I don’t think that it’s beyond me to do one a week starting in June. I feel that’s fairly reasonable. I’m leaning towards Thursdays, but I may find that another day works better.  But yeah, I apologize. I don’t intend to stay away for an entire year this time. 🙂

-Rae