Flash Friday: The Pursuit

by Michael Seese

With life just being so crazy of late, it's hard to find the time to write. (Or at least, as much time as I'd like to write.)  The Flash Friday contests are a double-edged sword. Posted at midnight (when I should be in bed) the stories are due 24 hours later. So you've got to write quickly, and get it done; you can't linger. But with work, and dinner, and the dog, and relaxing....

So this week's entry made it in just under the wire, with me dead tired.  We were given this picture:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and told to "write a genre that’s new to you). For example, but not limited to: fantasy, scifi, romance, mystery, western, comedy, crime, horror, or thriller (or any general audience subgenres of these examples)."

Hmmm. I've pretty much much all of those. So I settled on something I call "The Pursuit," which I think I decided is "Paranormal fantasy." And for good measure, I wrote the story in verse.

I laid
on my back and prayed
to Callisto above:
"Please, dear goddess. Please help requite my love.
I have spent my life pursuing her grace,
worshiping from afar, never witnessing her face.
I wish no more than to savor her skin.
Pay no heed to those calling it sin."
Fingers crossed, did she see my lie?
The goddess, crossed, her icy reply:
"It is not love of which you wax poetic.
No! You are a liar! Pathetic.
Were your goal to feed your family,
I might find a dram of sympathy.
But you hunt only for the thrill,
bloodlust satisfied by the kill."
I felt the need
to answer her charge of basic greed.
"No!" I protested, "my intentions are sincere.  
I want no more than the chance to be near."
Her smile dripped of irony.
"Very well. You shall have your destiny."
And thus my pursuit of the elusive gazelle, alone
captured for eternity, forever etched in stone.

In hindsight, I wish I had written the last two lines more like:

And thus captured for eternity, forever etched in stone
my pursuit of the elusive gazelle, alone.

And perhaps, even using "unknown" as the final word.

Oh well, I can always change it if I submit it elsewhere.