They had made the arrangements.
She walked away on blown out
Egg shells, spearing embryos
On her Manolo Blahnik stilettos,
Whipping up meringue in her wake,
Its dull crunch a reminder
Of her empty womb.
How easy it was to suck
From a relationship all the smooth
Creaminess and leave
The fragility of arrangements
To someone else.
© Kim M. Russell, 2016
Image by permission of Emily Blincoe
My response to dVerse Poets Pub Poetics: Arrangements by Emily Blincoe, for which Grace has brought us an artist’s work as muse for our pens.
writing in north norfolk 
Oh this was an original take… really an unexpected take, but so fitting with those crushed eggs…
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I’m still not sure where it came from…
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Wonderful take on the image! (I now want one of those Cadbury eggs, though. I blame you.) 😉
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Those creme eggs are lethal!
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Oh good grief, I LOVED this! Such imagery here, so very powerful.
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Thanks Freya – I really don’t know where it came from. One minute I was looking at the eggs and all of a sudden the poem had hatched itself.
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I know the feeling!
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I love your original take on this pic. So different from other offerings. How sad that such people force such arrangments.
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T agree. I’m still a hippy at heart and struggle to understand the way some people think and behave.
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It’s okay. I’m an old hippy myself but grew out of it in my restaurant days. but now I am back in it!
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😉
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Wow!
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🙂
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Wow this is a powerful piece! It speaks to me, especially the last few lines.
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Thank you for your comments – I’m overwhelmed!
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Lovely and painful. Well done!
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Than k you, Marilyn!
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Let’s hear it for old hippies & beat poets, for we have so much to share. When I do open mic readings, they are mostly my audience. Your take on the image is delicious, sad, & powerful; a lot packed into what, 14 lines; bravo for the bruvera & brevity.
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Thanks Glenn, much appreciated! I’d love to beam up to one of your readings.
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Ouch !! Is this a certain sister ? Peace, love & light. A N Other hippie.
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No, not a sister. Watch out for something in November that should appeal to you.
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I read this multiple times, love your take on this!
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Thank you!
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The empty womb imagery and the ending lines have a definite bite Kim ~ I too admire your creative response to the picture ~
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Thank you, Grace.
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Wow!! ❤️ I agree, this is such an original take on the artwork, Kim ❤️ I was especially touched by the line “The fragility of arrangements to someone else.” Beautifully penned.
Lots of love,
Sanaa
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Thank you, Sanaa. Much love back!
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such a realistic twist! sorta sucks the breath out of you!
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I’m glad it had that effect!
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Wow, that was an unexpected take on the same prompt already used by Bjorn and De. I am amazed at what the mind/subconscious can come up with. A real sense of desolation and crushed hopes in this one, plus clever use of eggy mixes and metaphors.
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I was really tempted by the seaside collection but I found myself returning to the eggs again and again with an almost fully-formed poem emerging!
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This is so beautiful. The hollowness of empty lives. I never thought I’d sigh over a meringue.
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Thank you, Sarah!
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Yes, the contract between the stilettos and the creaminess of meringue clinched the feeling of brokenness, the nonsense of the “arrangement”. Very cool.
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Thank you for reading and commenting, Kathy!
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What a chuckle: ” spearing embryos / On her Manolo Blahnik stilettos”
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🙂
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Wow! Hang on to wherever this came from….it is deep and it is brilliant. There are so many lines inside that just zing. Brava! This is a wonderful take on the prompt. Ah….I have read this over and over and it moves me mightily.
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I’m so glad it got you where I was aiming for. I wasn’t sure how it would be received – perhaps a bit too close to the bone for some.
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No, perfection to me.
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Thank you!
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Truly a mesmerizing poem. The sense of shattered hopes, dreams, of all the cliches of eggs and shells that lurk behind relationships.
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Thank you, Brian, you’ve understood what I wanted to convey.
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Thank you for writing Kim.
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Oh I like the energy in this as well as the textures and sounds. I could hear those eggs crunching under stilettos! Love where the prompt took you.
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Thanks for stopping by and reading, Mish!
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embryos, blown out
arrangements, egg shell smooth womb
meringue stilettos
A senyru for you Kim. 🙂
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Thank you Brian, much appreciated 🙂
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Disturbing how cool and casual we’ve become about spearing human embryos and emptying wombs…
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I sometimes despair of the human race…
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This got me in the gut, or empty womb. Such a profound underlying sense of sadness, here, Kim. So well expressed.
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Thank you, Victoria.
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Wow! Sinning metaphors and imagery. Love your take on the prompt!
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Thank you Bryan!
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just noticed that auto-correct did me in again…that should have been “stunning” not “sinning”
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I’ve seen some weirder ones! My Kindle has seriously annoying and stupid spell-checker that doesn’t even ask – it lets you type in your word correctly, lets you continue and then changes it!
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We came out of our shells and touched on a couple similar points with smooth and embryos. Our yolks must be aligned and scrambled together. Eggcellent imagery, metaphors and word work! ❤️
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Thank you! 🙂
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I read and commented on this before, but damn, Kim…it hits you like a truck. Been there.
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Thanks for coming back for more!
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