Prompt #5: X Marks the Spot

1/15/2023

Welcome to Prompt #5 of the Covid Writing Recovery Project online.
Jump in here with a reflection, then share on the other prompts if you like.
Perhaps you'll choose to respond to other people's comments,
or simply read through all you find on the site.
This is our community and our Project, which we are creating together.

Almost three years into the Covid 19 pandemic, we still don't have a map to the territory.
The global island we share keeps rearranging itself, foisting on our community
new leathery tangles of vines, mountainous fire ant nests,
and paper-thin flower blossoms the color of late sunrise.

There is a giant "X" somewhere harboring a worthy surprise for us.
What do we hope to find?

Lead us to your TREASURE!
Your words show the way!

To share your reflection, click on the word "Comments" below
then scroll to the bottom of the page and use the "Reply" form to submit your work.

4 Comments

Steve

1/18/2023 08:21:29 pm

Although GPS devices can locate people and places, Covid has altered the terrain. Such technology may need to go by the wayside. A new world has been born, a new map for it needs to be charted. This "global island" is more permeable now, like an archipelago, fragmented and strewn. Google maps may know my zip code but Google doesn't really know where I am. "Recalculating" has become an inner exercise where the realities of latitude and longitude no longer intersect. Ironically, it could turn out that "X" was here all along but eluded me because of the noise. Sometimes "X" appears in a dream or a holy moment. If only it would linger. For some reason "X" seems to hover over an infinite horizon. The closer it appears, the further away it is, like a reflection in a car door mirror. The mystics speak of an "eternal chase". However distant "X" might seem, I will try to navigate toward it, pandemic or not. As long as there is gravity, I trust that "X" will be somewhere nearby. That will suffice for now.

Karen Jessee

1/22/2023 06:35:18 pm

Buried treasure means the muddy shores of a deserted island, where bluest sky meets a forest of trees and my heart sprints inland, positive and optimistic. Vines the size of towering maples reach into a canopy of shadows and greens. Fern fronds protect the trail I try to follow, their fists dodging my belabored footfalls. Every living thing hums intelligence. Even what isn’t living—stone, sand, shells, soil—pulses with an intrinsic and mysterious knowledge.

I, however, by logic and reason, should know nothing at all. I have never been where I am standing now, dirty up to my elbows, filthy up to my knees. Shrieks of winging birds and the threat of every ambulatory life form, whether microscopic or as big as a table, startle and badger me. Now, I feel nauseous! Disheartened. Blind.

But somehow, I know where to go, not oblivious to scrapes and stumbling, committed to them. They are evidence of my determination to tromp through the treacherous mess on my way to claim hidden riches. The desire to understand creates momentum. Curiosity is a superpower leading the way forward. These two provide me with enough compass to catch sight of bits of RED up ahead in patches through the trees.

What do I discover? There is no spot!
The enticing “X” marks me.

Melissa

1/27/2023 06:25:34 am

Riding in the crow's nest, high in the sky,
I see the ocean cresting and falling all around me.
I'm headed in the right direction. I can feel it.
The holy land lies before me, promised land.
I need only keep going toward it. Forward.
The wind fills my sails, fills my sky.

When it comes down to it,
All I hope to find,
is me.

Matty

1/27/2023 07:42:02 pm

The mighty phoenix is the only living outcome of death. Zombies aren't living. Trial by fire indicates a cruel god. How else can we be? Yet the wings of the flaming bird must have fuel: oxygen. Perhaps we ought to hide in holes. Perhaps we've had enough believing in the bad. It's easier to become the virus. Someday this will all be a memory.

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Together we till the soil of our lives.
We plant seeds of confidence and hope,
re-imagine ourselves, create new meaning, experience joy.