The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!
Fear Bending
by Angela Yuriko Smith
Fear flies off the cliff, free-falling to froth on the rocks below, like a dust of angel feathers, like an avalanche of regrets, like a blizzard of what-if. Does the river fear as it comes to the edge? Do the droplets scream in unison as they crest the lip of the earth to fly toward the sky, shimmering fractures of light catching them from within, prisms on a carnival ride, roller-coastering up and over and down…
But falling is also release, free-flying peace as I escape the banks of my river to become mist, become rain, become ocean and river again. One drop higher than an eagle, on the curve of the earth, as a cloud scuttling the moon, a cool drink for a parched landscape, no boundaries, limitless, falling into freedom…
I become the shape of water, abandoning the baggage I was born with, that I was taught, given and bought. I paid for my designer bags, but now I let them go so I can be rain in the sun, a momentary prism arcing muti-hued fire across the heavens, a ribbon of promise, a shining path to wherever we want to go.
after the long fall
we rise to become rainbows
bending the white light.
Fiction © Copyright Angela Yuriko Smith
Image © Copyright Alex Grehy
More from Angela Yuriko Smith:
Angela Yuriko Smith is a two-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author, editor, educator, and publisher. She leads Space & Time and founded Authortunities, a creative ecosystem helping writers create meaningful work, build sustainable creative lives, and shape the worlds they want to inhabit. She believes the world is a rough draft. We can write it better at authortunitiespress.com.
