THE BARE NECESSITIES

~ Kelvin M. Knight's blog

Picture by debbiayelet from Pixbay

The Bare Necessities

© Kelvin M. Knight, 2019

We didn’t know we could dance. We didn’t know we could sing. If they hadn’t welcomed us into their amazing home and encouraged us with their kind words, their wonderful music, we would still be none the wiser.

The way their drums beat, the way their lights pulsed, was like lifetimes of heartbeats becoming one.

Our arms lifting, our bodies gyrating, we became one, whereupon our souls were revealed, harmonious and multicoloured souls that swirled before them, made them clap and cheer until their souls flopped out: ugly pits they were ashamed of. Pits writhing in agony where we glimpsed our ancestors standing naked, chained at their necks and feet. Their fur was bald and bloody and caked in excrement. Tortured, our ancestors were forced to fight until they died.

Motionless, we bared our teeth then held out our clawed paws, offered them our forgiveness until their lamenting began.

(150 words)

The above “talking statue” story was written in response to the What Pegman Saw prompt, which this week took us to:

Riga, Latvia

You are warmly invited to the Inlinkz link party to read other globetrotting contributors’  stories inspired by this week’s prompt.

Click here to enter

Thank you, as ever, Karen and Josh, for hosting this great weekly prompt, and for everyone who takes part.

Published by Kelvin M. Knight's blog

I am a reader, a listener, a writer. I love helping people. I love storytelling... story showing. I love cycling, too.

34 thoughts on “THE BARE NECESSITIES”

  1. Those gummybear statues make me wonder if they might be part of the fundraising trend to have a city symbol (such as a bear, jaguar or swan) be created en masse, and then have different artists paint each one bespoke for a specific location in town(a doctors office, for example.).

    The dancing bear is such a fairy tale image, but when we remember what cruelty to animals we once enjoyed as entertainment, it does make you wonder, what state our souls are in. Very interesting piece.

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  2. I- uh- I -uh, a little speechless here. What a powerful image and overwhelming emotions you’ve written. Really, really great! Wow! If it’s okay, I’d like to make a copy to tuck into my memory book. I really like this one….

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  3. Visceral and emotional. Wonderfully done, Kelvin. Great to see you! Glad you found your inspiration. I was expecting the teddy bear picnic when I saw the photo but this was oh so powerful.

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  6. Ooof! That’s a hard-hitting story. I wonder whether the rest of creation really will forgive us for the way we’ve treated them.
    You’ve structured the story beautifully, and some of the writing is delightful – I particularly like “lifetimes of heartbeats becoming one”.

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      1. I am indeed keeping well. But I can’t say the same for all things IT. Been off-line while the laptop went to the menders … again. And I’m not sure it’s in full working order now. But, hey, you’re a good welcome back. I thank you. 🙂

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    1. Hopefully the gear change was smooth, Y. Thank you for your comment, as always, and sorry for my tardiness in responding the weekend flew by and this week has turned into a whirly whirlwind. Hope you ribs are healing nicely and not affected your chuckling and good-naturedness too much.

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      1. Ribs doin well – thank you for remembering that!
        They are not tender anymore – and it no longer feels like there is metal plate in there – I can love life as normal but sometimes I “feel a dull ache that is painless” in that area – if that makes sense
        And once in a while the neck whiplash hurts while sleeping – but praising God it is dissipating fully.
        —
        And the gears here were perfect and it is what makes writing interesting – when authors change it up a bit – ahhhhh

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  10. What a wonderful weird direction you took this image in! I especially liked the visual (and emotional) effect of having the humans’ souls flop out, baring their sins. It was kind of the bears to forgive us that past.

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    1. It was indeed kind. They are showing us just what we should all do. They could retaliate with their size and strength and ferocity but they chose a different path as we all can. I hope. Thanks for seeing the depth in my humble words, Joy. Hope all well with your writing world(s).

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