August’s writing prompt was Sweat. Here we showcase all the responses that were submitted.
Sweat writing prompt: Trickling down your spine, glistening along your jaw. Sticky like peach juice and pungent, betraying the smell of the body. The closeness you’ve engaged in. Shivers when breath rushes over it.
Summertime treats
It is summertime.
The cute pink dresser is almost ready.
My dad adds final touches as he sometimes like to do with my mother
While mine are cute bows and flowers
Hers is skin painted red and blue
But to each their own, no?
Through his soaked and stinky shirt
As my mother loads it in the washing machine,
I see all the work he puts in
To make me happy and loved.
So what if he yelled or cursed?
He breaks his back to provide;
The world is far and wide,
Hard and harsh.
Protection from outside, a privilege
He upholds everyday
And I can’t help
But be grateful:
Less is always better than more
And we get the smallest share
Of the pain he sees everyday
It’s the way he prepares me
To handle the pain that might come
When he goes away
by Anirbas Qureshi
The ghost of a lover passed
it’s mid-august now
and i haven’t left my spot on the porch bench
since you packed your things and left,
hands bound in prayer
by the dampness of my palms
from the midwestern summer wet,
sweat is the language of love,
it trickles down the divet between my breasts
to pool on the crown of my softly-swollen stomach,
nourishing a life that is dead to you
because i’m feeding her for two,
my clothes have turned yellow
from the stains of my perspiration,
it’s exhausting to continue to love a soul
that is no longer here,
chasing a half-present ghost
that is slipping through my fingers
through this decrepit house,
forcing air from my lungs
in an attempt to join you in the beyond,
i have thumbed our photo on the mantlepiece so often
that your face has become distorted,
skin melting against my wet thumb
as i forget the constellation of freckles on your cheeks,
sweat is the language of love
because i secrete more sweat
than i do tears
over the headstone in the backyard,
cat and mouse
with the figure in my dreams,
as i drink to nourish my body
just so i can chase you
once more
by Amy Hadley (@amyhadleyah & @thepollyannacowgirl Insta)
10.5 kg Extra Weight
Unemployed, under pressure.
Stress gifted me 10.5 kg extra weight.
I got a real job.
Now I have to run in nature.
Like ages, weight is also a number.
You can gain anything.
You can lose anything.
You did so much on this earth,
still, people will not remember.
I sweat in summer.
I cry in monsoon.
No matter how much I try,
in the end, my mom says I'm not good enough.
by Inner Monologue (inner__monologue__ Insta)
Salt Scorched
It pools at the base of my spine
right above the waistband
that you pulled a hundred times.
Tugging me closer just the way I
liked to be held. I grasp at the
air thick and heavy in hopes
it will clear, purify my lungs and
yet, I cannot catch my breath.
I cannot untangle the thoughts
compressed inside my head.
I scramble to make any sense
of why I feel so hazed.
Hands wet.
Cheeks red.
My eyeline shimmers like the
horizon on blistering days.
A mirage of what should be
instead of what is...
Because what I think to be true
cannot be...
You entangled in someone else.
A figure not my own and yet you
seem to know it well, mapping it
with your hands so effortlessly.
A road you follow these days,
a route that isn't your way
home to me.
My eyes swim in sepia as I back
away, turning away into blazing
sunlight and the burn feels so good;
a solace in knowing I still feel.
Rainbow hues bloom like ink across
my retinas, a sad but beautiful
trick of nature. I laugh at the irony,
of such temporary magical sparks.
I run hard.
I cry harder.
Until the moment I am unsure if the
salt upon my lips, that essence I
hope will help me begin to heal,
falls from my sweat or my tears.
by Lauren Eve (@laureneve_books Insta)
swim press 