All points east.
Forceful gusts have taken up
the slack clothes line, compelled
a laundered horizontal.

I recall a childhood dread
the full-blown napery
whip-twisted with fearful faces
or phantoms outstretched
catching blind runners
in a suffocating grasp.
Blouse and trouser
pneumatic torso parts 
of dumb, fluttering beings
as if some grisly massacre
was on display.

But it's only
the toss and pitch of March winds
a swirling fusion of colour 
the flap-slap of textures
like Tibetan prayer flags
 - Please God, let me see another Spring. 

42 thoughts on “Phantasmagoria”

1. I love how you describe the wildness of the clothes on the clothesline. You made the torsos come alive with flapping limbs… really scary

   1. through a child’s eyes

2. My goodness this is incredibly dark and potent, Laura. I especially relate to; “Blouse and trouser pneumatic torso parts of dumb,”.. you took the prompt to the next level! 💝💝

   1. a child’s pareidolia and paranoic fears coming to the fore here (this turn of events took me by surprise!) before the adult brings some sense of relief

      1. I like how it ends on a prayer/relief.

         1. but a touch of trepidation still 😉

            1. ❤

3. Oh, Laura! This is filled with such vivid descriptions. You’ve made the laundry on the line, the child’s memories, and the adult all come alive. I love how you captured it all. Wonderful poem!

   1. thank you Merril – 2 perspectives on the seemingly innocuous and thank you for the prompt which brought them out

      1. You’re very welcome!

4. Thanks for sharing ..makes me smile.

   1. 🙂

5. This is sad and bordering macabre. Well done.
   Much love…

   1. thanks Gillena

6. I liked being surprised by the twists you took here. All that magical thinking and animism that influences us as children is so well illustrated here.

   1. lovely observation Anna – many thanks

7. A child’s nightmare laid bare; excellent work, crushing the prompt. I liked “the flap-slap of textures, like a Tibetan prayer flag.”

   1. many thanks Glenn – the child sees the macabre with half an eye usually but being caught up in a flapping sheet has a nightmarish feel

8. You made laundry on a line, blowing in the winds of March, come to life / terrifying as it might have been to a child’s eyes.

   1. spot on Helen – the coming to life of the inanimate is at the nub of this childish nightmare

9. WOWZA.

   1. blouse and trouser!

10. The ending is so poignant. Just the kind of memory to seize us with the full emotion of being alive. (K)

    1. happy you picked up on that emotion K – you can also hear the tentative fear of the adult there!

11. Dark from the brightness, and so effective Laura. Hope you make another spring my friend. Personally, I believe you got it easily! 🙂✌🏼❤️

    1. from your mouth to God’s ears as my husband used to say 🙂

12. I admire the energy of the laundered horizontal. The last stanza though is uplifting and hopeful with the Tibetan prayer flags.

    1. there’s a lot of sound in this poem really and the imagery of those flags came to me in flash – thank you Grace

13. A beautiful poem of nostalgia! I remember those days. The full-blown clothes do give a ghostly feeling. Well done Laura.

    1. thanks Dwight – I made it darker for this child though the imagery would have registered clearly

       1. It worked very well. The images are perfect!

14. Love this, Laura! I was reminded of childhood fears when mom would forget to remove the clothes and they would be fluttering ghoulishly on clothesline all night.

    1. ah you too felt the nostalgia – clothes are often not dried this way any longer so the painting touches on childhoods

       1. It so does! Though here, in many places, this practice continues.

15. Dark and sorrowful..yet hope lies in the end 🙂

    1. yes the adult hopes and prays so!

16. As if…as if…what a line…those clothes on the line, fluttering like memories do too….reminding us…they are part of a collection of semiotic symbols, part of all our histories…displayed, overtly…

    1. the semiotics of a clothes line – spot on Ain

17. This a great twist on the theme, full of vivid images…JIM

    1. thank you – these March winds stirred my imaginings

18. I love this, Laura. The clothes popped right off that line!

    1. what a nice comment – thank you!

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