Purple Mark's variation of an Exquisite Corpse

 

Photo by Seattle PI

Things Seen: One Through Fourteen

The First Thing I saw was the mottled Yellow ground beyond the fiber mat. There were the fallen leaves of the approaching Autumn caught in its weave.

The Second Thing was a Rose that lay Browning after being filched from someone’s garden and abandoned on the uncaring sun-heated ground.

The Third Thing was a peculiar toy: a strange Chinese blend of Disney and San Rio of a baby/cat hybrid that crawled on the ground and mewed.

The Fourth was the gurgling laughter under the trees off the basketball court from the two mad scientists who had found the key to turning off Gravity by a Fifth Force which ran parallel to and repelled the ground.

The Sixth Thing were the bright Green tennis balls which hadn’t cleared the net and lay disregarded on the ground.

The Seventh Thing were the hoops of stone along the court’s grounds and of the dreams of Mayans anxious to not win the game and thus lose their hearts.

The Eighth Thing was the rumble of unmufflered motorcycles prowling Pine Street and the sound of bicycle tires on the gravel scattered over the ground.

The Ninth Thing were the tiny ground-score Lemon cupcakes, home-maid chocolate-chip cookies and the parade of ice-cream walkers.

There was a big ‘X’ or the number Ten where a “Bloody Hippy” had spray-painted the hot ground with a desperate need for attention: I was here!

There were Eleven bounces between attempts by the boy to make a basket: None of which went in and rebounded to the ground off the backboard.

The Twelve days of Summer were half over with park-goers eager to get their fill of Vitamin D before it rained and the ground turned to mud again.

The Thirteenth Thing were the metallic green sandals that looked more at home in the jungle than on this asphalted ground.

The fourteenth thing was the planes which drifted overhead as people walked on the walls instead of the ground as the writing exercise came to an end.

—Purple Mark, Written at a writers circle that met Saturday at Cal Anderson Park, July 30, 2011