# July Challenge: "Washing Bones"



## Chesters Daughter (Jul 1, 2018)

*AS PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED, IF YOU ENTER THE CHALLENGE, YOU MUST CAST AT LEAST ONE VOTE IN THE POLL. FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL RESULT IN YOUR ENTRY BEING DISQUALIFIED.

*The prompt for this month's challenge, as chosen by Gumby is: *Washing Bones*

You are free to interpret the prompt in any way you wish, though of course, site rules apply. If you are unsure of the challenge rules please read the 'stickies' at the top of the board. *Please note that all entries* *are eligible to receive critique in the voting thread.* 

*The inclusion of explanatory text or links of any kind within an entrant's challenge entry is prohibited and will be immediately removed upon discovery. As always, only one entry per member is permitted.

*As previously announced, anonymous entries have been abolished, therefore, entrants must post their own entries in this thread, or if you desire to protect first rights, please post your entry in the [URL="https://www.writingforums.com/threads/178950-July-Challenge-quot-Washing-Bones-quot?p=2170089#post2170089"]*secure*[/URL][URL="https://www.writingforums.com/threads/178950-July-Challenge-quot-Washing-Bones-quot?p=2170089#post2170089"]* thread*[/URL], and then post a link to it here in the public thread. *Failure to do so runs the risk of your entry being disqualifie**d*, so if you require assistance with the task, please PM *me*, and I will gladly help you.

If your entry contains strong language or mature content, *please include a disclaimer in your title.

*Kindly make sure your entry is properly formatted and error free before you submit. You have a* TEN MINUTE GRACE PERIOD *to edit your piece, but anything edited after that will likely see your entry excluded from the challenge. 
*
Do not post comments in this thread. Any discussion related to the challenge can take place in the Bards' Bistro. 

Everyone may now use the "Like" function whenever they so choose.



This challenge will close on the 15th of July at 7pm EST.**


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## Chesters Daughter (Jul 4, 2018)

*The Woodworkers’ Daughter*

Her scale screamed
less than six stone,
most of which
was exclusively bone,
yet when she showered
she scoured her skeleton
in an unquenchable quest
to wash away weight
only she could see.

But that came later.

In the beginning,
blessed with a normal BMI,
she’d been content hiding
behind her snare and cymbals,
but a one of a kind voice
forced her front and center
where endless eyes focused
on her imperfections

most sadly born 
of her own misconception.

Please the mother.
Please the brother.
Please the fans.
Forget herself.
Her sacred voice had no say.
Powerless to plan her own steps,
she took control another way.

Thin was in
and audiences did not pay
to see a sloppy slob sashay.
So she starved and purged,
popping laxatives
with metabolic uppers
in record numbers
to immediately usher out
what tidbits she took in.

She dropped pounds
but her lying eyes denied the loss
so her weight plummeted
down
down
down
as desperate to lose more
she clawed at death’s door
finally feeling 
in command
of her situation
until the little she had left
failed her 
in pursuit of preservation.

A solitary savior
was found in a network 
of collapsed vessels
and through a tube
her dying landscape was watered
as its larger cousin
force fed the crops.

Her tissues greedily gulped
what they needed to succeed 
and ounces married bone
but alas 

it was too late.

Syrup of ipecac
had laid to waste
the love starved muscle 
nestled within her chest.
With almost no warning,
her beat deserted her.

At the age of 32,
her caloric war ended,
her unique sound
forever gagged and bound
for greener pastures.

Back at the beginning,
before she was held hostage
by a mistaken mind,
the family 
she relinquished her rights
to please
was as absent as the husband
whose betrayal
had brought her to her knees.

Bedeviled and doomed,
there’s no doubt you believed
you were all alone
as you cleansed 
those fleshless bones

sweet, tragic Karen

everyone
anyone
someone

should have shown you different.


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## andrewclunn (Jul 7, 2018)

*An Oral History*

Crowns filled with gold and ivory caps
are rotted by greed and inflamed by pride
Can soda pop sins and cavities be cleansed
with twice daily prayers to the goddess fluoride?

Incisor indulgences and floss forgiveness
fail to mouth wash away the nicotine stains
Pull the offenders from withering roots;
erect porcelain statues to take their place


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## TuesdayEve (Jul 7, 2018)

*In the Distance*

Pearls of sweat crown her forehead beneath a fringe 
of brunette hair
Her steady breath measures the song within her 
of the first people who honored the land

Eyes down fixed on busy hands tying knots and weaving 
patterns passed on from mother to daughter 
seeped within birthright

high above the crow caws

Her foot taps Earth’s sacred heartbeat 
rhythm earlier than memory

Her thoughts journey across snowy plains 
where ancestral bones once traveled across winter 
blizzards and summer migration to rest in the mound

Obligation and reverence shielded by generations of
respect washed away by the cross and forsaken by
the modern 
Her hands remember the ancient tradition and heroes
of her blood

ally of the wind the crow caws


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## toddm (Jul 8, 2018)

*Face the waves*

Face the waves that touch our country;
breathe the starlight, admixed with brine;
swim amidst bright dreams of morning
tossed and tumbled through the night;
a strong desire for wind is upon us,
driven fierce by unseen tempests,
pushing the waters onto pale shores
through wild and wavering shadows;
these fair bone-cages are being washed,
serene in the warm and ebbing tide;
the fragile half-light is burning down
into the depths illumined in the eye;
such twilight and silhouetted smiles,
such longings between the water-pages,
longings not understood by youth:
the endless minstrelsy of frothy waves,
eyes bright beneath star-spray blossoms,
and the dying of each wave in its turn.


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## Gumby (Jul 11, 2018)

*Resurrecting the Bone*


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## aj47 (Jul 14, 2018)

The Riddle Song

I gave him my cherry
though I was stoned
he gave me his chicken
no bones about it
then it was
an endless story
of someday
until
with unshed tears
I switched to plan b
for blood
washes away sin


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## ned (Jul 15, 2018)

*blind eyes*

.
​a whiff on the wind
of reeling hormones

stalking the flock
seeking those prone

stealing innocence
no being condones

leaving a child
unhealing alone

while a disgraced priest
kneeling atones

like a blood-faced predator
cleaning bones


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## Chesters Daughter (Jul 15, 2018)

This challenge is now closed.


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