Dark Hearts Love Too: Scary Lights

Friday, October 6, 2023

Scary Lights

1950 Chevrolet

This kind of headlight: a-ok.

1950 Mercury Monterey Coupe

This kind of headlight:

Scary because reasons.

as a child

for reasons I can't explain

I found headlights with hoods over them benevolent,

while headlights without hoods were terrifying;

not in the same way as large insects or death

but still sinister.

~for reasons unexplainable~

I refuse to allow the adult I am now

to become snarky and sanctimonious

about childhood fears

which may seem ridiculous in retrospect.

the anxious girl I was had her reasons for being afraid

of the scary lights.

notes

Prompt provided by Experience Writing.

https://experiencewriting.com/2023/10/06/oct-6-prompts-in-the-twilight/

Poem form: Puente

http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/puente.html

The form has three stanzas with the first and third having an equal number of lines and the middle stanza having only one line which acts as a bridge (puente) between the first and third stanza. The first and third stanzas convey a related but different element or feeling, as though they were two adjacent territories. The number of lines in the first and third stanza is the writer’s choice as is the choice of whether to write it in free verse or rhyme.

The center line is delineated by a tilde (~) and has ‘double duty’. It functions as the ending for the last line of the first stanza AND as the beginning for the first line of the third stanza. It shares ownership with these two lines and consequently bridges the first and third stanzas.

In the puente you have overlapping couplets. I refer to these couplets as the processional couplet and the recessional couplet taken from the same words used in the wedding ceremony.

I hadn't previously heard of the Puente, but here we are.

I've been a nervous wreck for most of my life and I still don't know why. I'm no longer unsettled by cars with round headlights, though. The ones with the blinding blue headlights are much worse. Fortunately, I don't see them very often anymore as I avoid driving at night.

~Ornery Owl Has Spoken~