Tense

Shoulders weigh under the pressure
Emotions almost bursting,
Tears well up.
The shadow of failure,
Whispers knowingly...

My heart beats fast,
My teeth nibble at my lips,
A wave of stress crashes,
Only to find a home in my brain.

Surrender

A deep, sinking feeling rests in my stomach
Mind boggled,
Emotions conquer
I give in

A moonlight escape

The night is quiet. All is dark, Ebony's coat shines in the distance. A fully grown horse, his coat the colour of his name, brushed. A single white diamond rests on his nose, just above those nostrils which breathe out warm air. I sit on the fence, gazing up at the sky; it is like a coal mine with diamonds peering down at me. They seem to multiply and soon the sky is twinkling so brightly that I can't look at it any more. The light shines down like a guidance, forming a river of silver in front of Ebony.

I mount him, grab the reins and click my tongue. He clops forward, his hooves forming a beat. I hum in time to it, then softly sing to myself. I lean down, and click my tongue faster, Ebony moves in time and before I know it, the wind is piercing my skin and my hair is blowing in the wind. I laugh and ride off in the distance.

Halo

The darkness closed in on me. I was blinded. An icy blast of wind caught me by surprise. I gasped and fog escaped and become one with my ebony surroundings. I shivered, but my short hair were damp with sweat. I looked around, looking for a familiar object nearby. Nothing made sense. I was in a new, coal-black environment where I couldn't even see my hands or feet. How did I get here?

A flicker of light made its way towards me in the darkness. I squinted and peered at it. Round and glowing, it lit me up. The darkness vanished and I was completely encased in golden. The halo started to move. I grasped it, not wanting to be left in darkness. I felt myself being lifted off my feet. The halo and I moved as one......

Spinning dust

The wind blows like an angry spirit, destroying everything in its path. Tree branches whip the air like swords, coconuts come crashing down; they split open. The sky is scarlet with fury. Dust envelopes the city like a forest fire. The airport is closed, all flights cancelled...God has blocked our view. Dust goes up my nose, I can't breathe. The windows crash into panes, curtains out of control. The smell of dust replaces the household odours. The air tastes raw, earthy; without its usual chemicals. Cars blow by like ghosts, headlights glowing.

The Exorcist

Darkness, curtains closed.
Chilled room,
Blankets wrapped around,
Utter and complete silence.

The title snaps onto the screen; red, capitalized.
Somewhat confusingly, the movie begins with the Azaan.
The devil unleashed,
360 degrees head turn,

Flashes of frightening faces make us giggle,
70's effects humorous.
Whispers of "shut up" go around,
The movie ends.

The call to prayer is heard again
The title bangs onto the screen,
Credits roll accompanied by eerie music.
I scream.

The Art of Bottle Beating

Welcome readers to the guide to a perfect bottle beating. I would just like to state that I’m encouraging no sort of violence whatsoever. This is just a way for me to share my knowledge and skills about carrying out a perfect bottle beating. Now that that’s over, let us begin.

First, we need a reason for bottle beating. Reasons such as “I felt like it” or “Its fun” are not acceptable. An individual needs a sensible reason to carry out this art which is called bottle beating. An example of an acceptable reason is if you’re having a fight (with hands and feet) with someone, then you can carry out this art. Bottle beating should never be used to start fights or for revenge; if you do so, then you are a disgrace to bottle beaters everywhere and you should just use your bottle for drinking water, which is what most people use bottles for. If the individual wants to beat the bottle “for fun” then kindly tap lightly instead of exerting all of your power on it.

Now that you’ve got your reason, it is time for you to pick a target. Note that your enemies are a bad target as they start brawls after an episode of bottle beating. I urge you to carry out this art on your friends and your siblings only……and only if you’re angry at them. “For fun” carry out your bottle beating with a light tap on anyone you want. Trying it out on your crushes is also a bad idea so kindly refrain from doing so.

Since you’ve decided your reason and your target, now it is time to pick up the perfect bottle needed for the beating. Do not; I repeat do not use a glass bottle or those school bottles. Steel bottles are also banned……unless you want to go to jail. The best type of bottle to carry out this art is a plastic, harmless, nestle bottle. The small one, that is. It is the perfect bottle needed for bottle beating and it doesn’t cause a lot of damage either, though my friends say otherwise.

The last and most important step needed for bottle beating is how to hit with the bottle. Surprisingly, the bottle is more effective if it is empty rather than full. After you have finished all the water in the bottle and been to the bathroom at least twice, it is time for you to spot your target. When you have found your victim, you stalk them and go up to them with a friendly gesture so that they don’t suspect anything. Then, you hold the top of your bottle and raise your bottle at medium height or higher, it’s your choice depending on how hard you want the blow to be. Then you bring your bottle down without faltering and beat your victim on the back or the shoulder; NEVER the head or any other area.

There are many incidents where I’ve not used my knowledge of hitting with bottles in the right way. An example of one of these is that once I hit my best friend with a perfect, empty plastic bottle but it didn’t hurt her as much as I’d wanted it to. This is a classic example of someone not applying the correct technique to hit with the bottle. I am sure that I had not raised the bottle to the correct height, thus I urge you to pay close attention the technique of hitting with the bottle so that you do not make this mistake. An example of using the technique correctly is when I hit my friend with the bottle and he actually felt a lot of pain. I know that he felt pain because he said “ow!” and rubbed his shoulder which was where I had struck him.

After you have given your victim a few good whacks, then you stop beating them and apologize to them if you’re a good person. Like when I apologized to all my friends on various accounts when I had hit them with bottles, simply because I didn’t want to be friendless and a loner. If you’re a jerk then throw a few curses at your victim and lose the few friends you had. I’ve never been evil enough so I do not have any examples to share with you.

After you’ve done all the above then you can go on living your life as you did before and carry out the art of bottle beating whenever you are in a fix. I have always smiled after I beat someone with a bottle and kept on living a normal life with my wonderful friends and family. Although if you throw curses at your victim, then I doubt that they will still want to be your friends or even your family for that matter.

Now that I have shared the secret to the perfect bottle beating, I ask you to use it wisely. A few warnings have to be given though. Only carry out this art if you want to be branded as an angry, bottle beating person your entire life. This is not a joke because I used to beat people with bottles in 9th grade and after the end of 11th grade, I was still called a bottle beater as my friend gladly pointed out to her new friend, and my friend also demonstrated with an incorrect bottle: the big nestle one which wasn’t fully empty by tapping me on the head (also incorrect). Do not indulge in bottle beating if you want to be the sweet, kind person. I advise you to carry out this task if you want to be friendless and named as angry your entire life (not that that’s what people think of me, but I’m just saying). Because bottle beating WILL cause people who don’t understand this art to call you angry, bad-tempered and bottle beater. They will also make cracks about your marriage partner being bruised and then they’ll abandon you. What happened with me was that in my school yearbook my oh-so-wonderful friends wrote that I will have a bruised husband, that I have extreme anger syndrome and that I should be kept away from glass bottles. Thus, I have been branded as an angry bottle beater and did you spot those jokes about me having a bruised husband? Yes, that is just an example of what could happen to you and it will stay there forever IN INK. So, do not become a bottle beater if you want to be called nice and sweet.

Another word of advice is that do not try to explain them this art because they will never understand it, simply because they are naïve and closed-minded. Just mock them for their unimaginativeness. Yes, I might be a little hurt and offended by my friends’ jokes, but that does not mean that I want to hit them with glass bottles because that is wrong and evil. Though, they were evil too and mean. No one sees me going around saying that their husbands will be bruised. And with that I leave you to use bottle beating wisely.

Cheerio.

By the sea

The soft foam rolled back and crashed into the rough, jagged edges of rocks which surrounded the white dust on the beach. The trail of blue which followed after, bathed the rock in a sticky, green cobweb of seaweed and grass. Tanned feet sunk into the quicksand of white, brightly coloured spades dug in and shouts of laughter echoed; merging with the crashing waves.

Speech

They all looked at her,
quiet as mice,
She shook,
shivered,
almost fell over.
Mouth opened,
lips parted,
and stammered