For February and March, the writing prompt was love/hate. Here we showcase all the responses that were submitted.
Love/hate prompt: There’s a thin line between love and hate: a strand of hair, the edge of a shadow, the place where two lips meet. It’s brutal and testing and translucent. So much can be said in that space between I love you and I hate you. Watch where you step. Mind the gap.
Loving thoughts
When I think of love
I think of you
And your soft smile and your green eyes
Gazing sleepily through the morning
I think of Sunshine, and red wine
Relief and peaceful dreams
Your perfect teeth.
It’s summer rain, and autumn leaves
And falling down
And Healing sounds.
Laughing so hard you meet the ground
When I think of love
It’s scooching over in a cab
We’re both too drunk at 2am
Held hands and pizza in our laps
It’s jumping up and down to greet you
With the warmest of embrace
When I close my eyes and I think of love
It’s just an image of your face.
Painful thoughts
When I think of pain,
I think of you—
dark nights,
long cries,
shadows stretching through the room.
It lingers late, it falls behind,
unread texts,
spilling red wine.
When I think of pain,
I think of death—
forgotten birthdays,
losing friends,
the quiet weight of emptiness.
I spend all day clutching pillows,
alone here in my bed.
When I think of pain,
I think of you—
living rent-free in my head.
by Caitlin Scally (@caitlinscally Insta)
The grey building now
The air tastes of trouble,
this city will eat you up,
chew on your dreams,
shit you out,
ah but the buzz,
you live for it,
it's in the people too,
jostling, hurrying,
everyone going places,
subway stations,
destiny, my destination,
never finding it.
I love it I tell myself,
I keep telling myself,
hey, the people-loud park,
is so green,
against the grey buildings,
cold, lifeless, quiet,
but maybe…
I'm the grey building now,
and I need to go home.
by Jer Hayes (@sherlockhayes Insta, @hayes_jer X)
Mother/Daughter
Be more sweet,
stand up straighter,
loose some pounds.
You look so much prettier
blonde, please stop slouching
down. Just smile at least pretend.
Just get over it, everyone gets stressed
it's part of life. You won’t get a husband, god
forbid a wife. Why do you have to assume the worst,
be young and free and happy. I’m serious you’re annoying me.
-she walks away frustrated-
But she doesn't get it, I’ve been broken, left to fall in life altering
ways. Limbs splayed out, bones shattered in shards,
yet still with a weapon I cannot protect myself.
Internalise guilt, undeserved but a life
sentence I handled alone. An
end before a beginning of
sorts. So, I take the pain
carve it downwards.
Fragile frame open
hate in kind.
by Lauren Eve (@laureneve_books Insta)
swim press 