What are we going to do girls?
Footnote: The ‘Inks’ usually arrive on their own but one day things were really, really hard and so they all arrived together. Sometimes we have to call on others to help us work things out.
(Clunk & Jam book, 2019).
They thought they’d made her disappear. But giving up wasn’t in her repertoire .
Her heart leapt so impossibly loud it stole her every sense .
But it was always the book, held preciously close to chest, that caught and consoled her misbehaving mind.
(Clunk & Jam book).
It was a hold your nose situation.
Like getting out of bed in the morning … making a long put off phone call … taking the next step … or a difiicult one … venturing into unknown or familiar but rather not go places … facing a lurking fear … a dreaded occasion … but always, always well prepared for the consequences of her actions … or that which might be thrust upon her by those both, unexpected … and expected that could happen at any undesignated moment in time. This made her relatively secure in the knowledge of all subsequent happenings. Phew. No wonder her head was spinning.
Go Play On The Swings .
The want to ride way up high reveals much less. A moment in the middle that can’t be held. A view from above stolen from beneath. I go PLONK. Caught by the place where soles meet soil. Much nicer than hanging by a longing for a lift.
This little soldier had a history of plonks. Each time she played with someone she’d end up getting hurt, which left her wondering if she’d be better off never playing with anyone again. One day, dumped in yet another plonk, too weary to bound from the stillness that forever taunted her, she sat. And she sat. And she sat. It was in the sitting that she began to wonder if maybe her escape from the plonk would not come from never trusting again. Maybe the answer lay in trusting herself. Or perhaps playing only the games that held a balance. And knowing when it was time to go home before it got too dark.
(Reposted from 2012. Originally from handmade book, ‘Rock The Boat’, handwriting by Mags. Now in Clunk & Jam book, 2019)
Me Jane .
Dangling in a moment of vulnerability, out of her jungle mind came a thought…3 thoughts actually…Could she make it without the BOy? Did she have to take such a wild and dangerously dependent leap—after all? And was it really that difficult and frightening to just let go?
This swinging ink has layer upon layer of meaning to sit and wonder about—like…. Is she really swinging up high or is this a trick? Is her foot in fact, firmly planted on the ground? Is she clinging for her life at the mercy of the rope (or the BOy), or has she taken a firm grip to put a stop all this swinging business? And what is this swinging business about anyway? Which way is she going? Back? Forward? Nowhere right now? Or has she finally landed in her very own spot? Is the rope attached? Is it all about to uncoil leaving her in a heap? Or is it going to lift her up, whoosh her away from whatever it is she’s so afraid of right now? To be continued no doubt …..
