Answer Me...

...doesn't this voice just make you want to melt?  And what a great song!

RWC #98

ERUPTION

Raging deep within,
The wondrous grief of birthing
roars, blood-red, upward.

Read others here...Link

Moving Images Challenge #47

THE WAITING

The trouble with costume parties was that secretly everyone went as the character she wished she could be, even if she chose not to acknowledge it publicly.  Ardith knew, for example, that when her mother used to go to one of those parties as Scheherazade, it was because she had harbored a secret desire to have the man of her dreams fall in love with her because she could tell such beautiful stories.  Her mother had been a romantic at heart, trapped in a mundane marriage to an ordinary Joe who sparked not a flicker in her, and those parties had been one way she found a reprieve from her situation.

So did that mean that the bridal gown and veil she had donned for the party represented her wish for a wedding?  She shuddered at the thought, but it was a shudder of desire, not fear or disgust.  She raised her toe idly and pushed the knob on the tap, letting a stream of cold water trickle into the bath.  The veil she still wore on her head tickled her neck as she stared unseeingly at the tap, the empty glass still clutched in her hand.  She knew who she wished to wed, but she didn't know how he felt.  She hadn't seen or heard from him in more than a fortnight.  Her dreams, and her thoughts, had been silent.

The bath water grew cold, and still she sat in it. shivering now, but unable, it seemed, to move, to get out of the bath and dry herself off.  She was caught, like a fly, in a web of silence and memory.  The towel was there, draped across the chair, waiting.  Just as she was waiting...

...Jonah's eyes snapped open, his body on instant alert, his heart pounding out of control.  He swallowed great gulps of air, and sent a thought out to find her...Ardith.  She was there, cold, shivering.

"Baby, get out of the bath!"

He felt her instant attention, her sudden fury...her fear.  It broke him, and he swore.

"I'll be there as soon as I can, Ardith.  I promise you!"

If you don't shed a tear...

...you're made of stone, or something pretty close!  These are my two most favorite "Chopped" endings in the order in which they occurred.  For those of you uninitiated ones, "Chopped" is a cooking competition on the Food Network which brings together unknown but great chefs for a fast-paced, blood-pumping competition to see who can wow the judges' palates enough to win hard cash for their efforts, and a new lease on their cooking careers. 

These two shows made it clear, for anyone who may have forgotten, or who didn't believe, that there ARE beautiful people in the world -- beautiful in spirit and in soul!

K's FIAF #73

FIRST KISS

She was as tense as he was.  The little quirk of her lips was perfect for the scene, but she held herself tightly, like a bowstring stretched to its limit...more than nerves at this first kiss in their love scene.  His cheeks creased in an almost imperceptible smile of triumph. 

Miss I'm-Not-Bothered-By-You was bothered...

Is it me...

...or do these two ladies share a similar sensuality of tone -- a richness, a roundness, a depth (across the spectrum of soprano sound), that makes listening to them sing a sexy, sensual treat?

Fiction in a Flash #73

(There are two pictures again this week, and again, please only use one (or you can do an "a" and a "b", if you can't decide).  The theme in both is the same, but the couples are different, and their facial expressions suggest different ideas to me.  See what you think before you choose.)

(These photographs were taken from the Internet.)

The "rules" are few and very simple:

* Your entry will come due each Saturday, when a new picture will be posted.
* You may only write 55 words.
* Your entry must be fiction.
* You may not alter the picture in any way.
* Post your entry as a blog on your page, and drop off the link in the comments section on this page.