Ian Bromage's exercise writings

Exercise 1: a 3-minute response to the keywords: concrete, cherry, lemon, ocean, salt, transient, coffee

Ocean Fruits

The ocean appears permanent but the waves are transient, it is the opposite of the hard solid concrete of human habitation. I love the smell of the ocean's salt air, which has a primal feel and I often sail on it in a pea green boat with cherry and lemon sails, but only when the ocean is calm, not angry.

Exercise 2: a response to Cristina's prompt about naked bodies and gender.

A Sudden Day Beneath Earth

It was a day like any other, by 10am the sun had scorched the earth, it was already 45 degrees and time to retreat underground. Our subterranean heaven consisted of clear, translucent pools of crystal fresh water, a luxury in our burning world. The few of us who lived here bathed naked together, there was no embarrassment or shame, genders were of no relevance as humans had merged with machines, our bodies bearing little resemblance to our fleshy ancestors, once our material forms had been augmented by technology and code. The last natural animals had become extinct a century ago, after their last pristine sanctuaries had been opened up to extract the last of the Earth's fossil fuels. "Drill, baby, Drill" had been the flagship policy of the first and last Dictator of the United States. And they drilled and drilled and as the temperatures soared. But here in our underworld genomic sequencing has enabled us to reimagine lost species and we live side by side with flora and fauna of paradise loss. Our bodies have no need for sustenance in Beneath Earth, we have everything we need, nothing is amiss, but one sometimes wonders if something, some event, could interrupt our heavenly existence. And then suddenly one day ........!

Nikki Overcash's

exercise writing

a 3-minute response to the keywords: concrete, cherry, lemon, ocean, salt, transient, coffee

Cherry-lemon frozen ice

passed from your hand

to mine Bittersweet.

Our feet on the concrete

makes me feel more stable,

less transient than I have

in months.

An ocean of words unsaid,

salty + sweet, but let them stay frozen.

Hà Minh's exercise writing

a response to Say Davenport's prompt: You've come to the crossroad. You are almost there.

I'm almost there

at the crossroad

uncertain

yet intertwined

with the two would-be bodies walking the paths about to be chosen

If choosing is essential to the experience of living

is not choosing dying?

If a choice splits the timeline into two

will there be endless possibilities after enough choices?

You are a destination that moves with me every time I walk

Hands on my heart, I know now my compass is my senses. I head toward the crossroad, knowing no matter which path I choose, it will be the right choice.