YWS Olympics Event One

Welcome to the first event of the Olympics! If you have no idea what this is, read this thread.

Event One: Alphabet Soup

There are twenty-six letters in the alphabet. Your task is to create a piece of writing which is exactly one hundred words long. In this piece of writing, you must select your words very carefully because you may only use each letter of the alphabet at the start of a word five times.

Example

Your one hundred words can include 'frog' 'first' 'fire' 'fight' and 'for' but then you would not be allowed another word beginning with f.

It was a dark night and the candles were burning low. Martha had always been afraid of the dark, but not like this. This was fear in its rawest form. This was the fear of never seeing the light again.

The above paragraph has 40 words. It uses: a (5) b (3) c (1) d (2) f (3) h (1) i (3) l (3) m (1) n (3) o(2) r (1) s(1) t (7) w (4)

This writer still needs to add 60 more words and must remove at least two of the words beginning with 't' to have an acceptable entry.

How to Enter

Once you have completed your entry, post it here. Please run a spell check first - any spelling errors will disqualify you from the event. After posting, you may edit your entry as many times as you wish until the end of the event. This event ends twenty-four hours from now, or when the thread has been locked. After the thread is locked, do not edit your entries, this will also disqualify you.

If you are uncertain about any part of this event, please do not post questions here. This thread is for entries only. Instead, go here but be aware that these events are only open for twenty-four hours so I may not be able to respond to your question in time.

Teams

If you are on a team, be sure to list the name of it at the top of your post. If you are not yet sure what your team is called, then write 'Team: unknown'. If you would like to join a team and do not mind which, then please send me a pm before Wednesday and I will give you one.

Here is my entry. Yay Olympics!

Zambezi

Maybe we left too soon—
Barotse clansmen told me Kuomboka*
is but two days from now.
Kuomboka, when hearts beat
by the African pulse.

And we dance by heart
and lose our minds
in floods of rhythm
and premonition.
For great Zambezi
readies, even now,
her cymbals.

She could never jerk up quack grass,
even vain Narcissus
readily—however vile
the relation, raw valediction
eclipses petty dislike.
Even youngest xerophyte feels
Zambezi’s fingertips kiss its xylem.

Vail ugly ducklings
soaring gleefully, deluge underwing;
yachts lifted upon gushing swells;
masterful concert pianists;
water maestros.

Perhaps we left late—
I speculate endlessly.

*A festival in which drums are banged to warn of the flooding of the Zambezi river.

Here's my entry!

Panic

Fear—no, sheer, raw panic—explodes inside my brain like billions of firecrackers. No cares anymore—only escape, rescue from this jumbled chaos. People zigzag haphazardly around me, carving x-ing paths, yelling “Wait! Wait!” I just stand, defeated. There’s no way out. Our kind rescuers are gone, vanished.

Quickly, everyone, realizing impending doom, falls quiet, utterly lost. Yet terror lingers, blanketing us all. The electric buzz chills me. Karina grabs my hand. “Zane,” she whispers, her voice unsteady. “What now?”

“I don’t know.” The only answer, completely useless. I had nothing left. Karina slumped, her—my—fear enveloping us both.

Berlynn Rae

FIELD MICE

Running, quickly running.
Efforts forever plague, under rich earth grounds.
Freezing, under icy ground yields deception.
Holding each other, huddling. Speak small lips "Good dirt, good dirt."
We've forever known rotting lies.
Unseen hopes comfort us
Not even Lethal Creatures hurt us here.
But you emerge, little kind round nose, scavenging, feeling remorse.
Inventing quirky paradises.
But we're not alone in the night,
We were blind by our passions and the owls are out,
Soaring down, mighty claws outstretched.
It matters not that we can't see them.
We are but prey, in the open moon.
We are plagued field mice.

advice to those who would be monsters
only beasts can make cities of xyrselves, gutted metropolises of jagged lights & worn concrete. listen: let moths tremble underneath your skin, eyes, mouth, then dig free. prowl. linger.

soft-handed, crawl. now’s for scaffolds—pelvis, vertebrae, ribs; veins. muscles. question how it holds, this graceless panoply of bones. your jaws wired shut, keep endless watch, ears unburdened of god & xyr echoes.

now whatever flickers red yellow green sputters. insects inch under pillars, deep iridescent roots. forever empty-bellied & heaving, lurch along noiseless roads like riverbanks. give them proper, fearless names.

dare be bloody teeth, a handful. weep under bridges.

Spoiler

before anyone asks, 'xyr' is a legit gender-neutral pronoun. so there.

Team Batman!

Once not long ago, four zany young people were going on vacation. Unfortunately, their plane crashed. “Just great,” grumbled Kaitlyn, “I don’t like swimming.” Luckily, Quincy was an experienced camper and showed everyone how to hunt, gather plants, and build shelters.
Quincy prepared fresh jackal meat on the fire. “But I don’t eat meat,” moaned Rachel.
Xavier just laughed, playing with the jackal’s brain. “Ew, disgusting!” yelped both girls. “Don’t come near us!” When morning came, nobody had less than fifteen fly bites.
It was a very difficult survival journey. Rachel killed Xavier. Kaitlyn nearly killed Rachel. Eventually, however, rescuers came.


(I'm disturbed by the stuff that comes out of my brain sometimes, honestly. And I'm new to flash fiction...)

Team ROR (Residents Of Randomosity)

CHILDLIKE WINGS
(conversational poetry)

"A wish to fly is feeble.
Impossible;
As everyone might say.
Yet so many question why they do,
But I'm certain they're not the only ones
Dreaming,
Of perfectly limitless hights.
Practically drowning grounded.
Like young eagles;
Ever jumping, lifting, rising, gliding, flying,
Free forever.
But of course,
Nobody says much-"

"Such things harm young minds greatly!
Even just childlike daydreams.
But if you're maybe right,
Perhaps us people
Could all be childlike?
Could all lift higher joyously?"

"Not everyone would;
Not openly grounded people.
Wishing is forbidden to reality.
Not us.
We're never grounded in reality.
Reality's undone."

Spoiler

in which lumi frames the worst poem with dark senryu

elder leaves

Death never relents,
rots each cell of fragile hearts,
and infects the host.

I watched your photons scatter,
tried grazing your airspace with the back of my palm.
Father warned me: always fear love in light,
but our vernal glow slighted my solid reason.

Like roots clawing through desert grain,
light withered without your hold.
Your dark passenger drowned me under
gales of vespal shrieks, choked me through
pools heaving violet iron.

Cold hands trembled on your final day,
unearthed juniper blooms until a grave settled
beneath parched elder leaves.

Quick cuts bleed freely.
Vendettas kill, unbiased,
quietly at night.

Spoiler

So much poorly done construction, it hurts. Was not made to include extensive vocabulary or a lasting impression, just a quick slur of words meant to really stare at to allow it to set in.

the car crash haunts me still. s e n d h e l p

"I get nightmares." Recollection.

Daddy! Me. Screaming. Hands forcing back, no luck or chance; she wasn't ready yet. Tears. Spluttering accompanied. Pain.

There were no reassuring words; just cold glares, painful quiet, the discomfort of loneliness visited me alone. Months after, he's being buried. Doctors couldn't save him.

I'm explained, his accident wasn't your fault. Insistence. Fire; ruin; explosion. Scars for life. My own.

You don't know anything!

No comforting or kin for holding onto. This present isn't like my untouched past. Endless weeping.

Goodbye.

Nightmares..

Breathe, Jackie, breathe. Inhale, exhale. Relax.

Too late. Eternally lost. Crying.

"..I still do."

These two brothers of mine

I found the wayward sons a block
from the cold, damp bridge
and kept a smooth distance.
Had one witnessed Man so
forlorn, succumbing to quiet solitude
well, we would have collared distances,
doused our fires in pits of light and regret.
Here, petulant rain patters against broad
bricks, I keep vigil over somnolent children.
Near dawn, frozen mouths mewl, I listen:
creeping desires of heat, knowledge, love.
Particularly, Man lists loquacious love,
chambers, veins in my heart riddled entirely.
Oppression presses quickly round eyes
(do not give yourself entirely, not now)
quell these ruinous ties, breathe upon
humanity’s grace.

Team ROR (Residents Of Randomosity) ^^

Spoiler

This is like an excerpt from a story ^^ A very poorly constructed story ^^'' It was painful to make this, but Here It Is ^u^ (jack-ass is one word ^^)

Ash (title ^^)

~Zoe woke to the smell of ash. Pain racked Zoe’s body. All she remembered was Prince Xander going crazy. Looking up, Zoe saw Xander among ruins.

Raging fire kindled inside.

“You bastard.” Muttered.

Xander turned back.

“You killed Kevin, Marie, Lana. Everyone.” Disbelief.

No reaction given. Just blank eyes staring from its apathetic, uncaring face.

“I’ll kill you!” Zoe exploded “Do you hear me?!”

Nothing.

“Murderer!! My friends will not have died in vain!” Words spoken in pain.

Xander was unfeeling.

“You jack-ass!” Her hands tightened around the grip of Kevin’s broken dagger.

“Die!" Zoe charged her old friend.

Nothing. ~

This took so long.... but here it is (No team by the way)

Rain falls, saturating our previously soaked driveway. Sounds of pattering fill my kempt room as each drop collides with ground, joined by quick, erratic claps of thunder. Lightning erupts, brightening the dark heavens. A light bulb flickers in my room. I quietly pray and hope electricity will remain. Like the universe were striving to ruin my day, our jinxed lights extinguish, leaving us in utter gloom. I persist gazing out at our comfortless earth, just me and the constant gale outside my home. Boring, though it could seem, I nested numbly for hours, just pondering how our quaint universe functions.

Team Conjunction

Spoiler

Thank God for thesaurus's...bleah I'm so tired.

Nora pouted. Jack was very late. Every boyfriend was the same, irresponsible and rude. She’d gotten rid of them quick enough. They’d complained, clingy men, every man left. Regardless. Jack lasted five months. Final breakup would be tonight. Nora took a gulp from her Starbucks’ iced latte. Yung did excellently on her nails; Nora loathed getting artwork dirty. No avoiding it. Zipping up granny’s old carpetbag she marveled how prettily her clothes fit in it. Xandra’s pond would be darling Jack’s final romantic getaway.

Rest dear

Escaping in Jack’s car, red and white gleamed ‘round her vision.

This event will close one hour from now.