Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Written on the 09:36 to Peterborough

I have been forced in to writing.
An empty page lined in banana leaf green stares at me.
Mockingly.
Taunting me.
Because it knows as well as I do that I even though I have nothing to write, I must.
Because I have uncapped my pen
With a grandiose flourish that was perhaps too grandiose for a standard, blue Bic. Which is perhaps undeserving of flourishes of any kind.
By now, the other passengers are staring at me with unveiled curiosity.
Waiting to see what I’m going to write.
So I pretend to think.
And write down ‘So I pretend to think’.
I look at my co-passengers.
They seem to be satisfied with my scribbling and have gone back to reading the paper and sending text messages.
So I begin to make secret little notes about them.
About the man’s scuffed leather briefcase and the girl’s blue scarf.
I soon tire of that, but I can’t stop
I’m in the groove now
I have to keep writing
So write I do
‘Google’
‘Faircloth Ltd.’
‘Blue elephant’
Words and phrases linked only by the pen that inked them.
I look up.
And see the man with the scuffed leather briefcase.
He’s writing in a cheap spiral notebook with an expensive pen.
Our eyes meet.
We give each other what we think are subtle once-overs and then look away.
We both write something down.
I write ‘Funny lime green shirt’
I hope he’s written something nice.

10 comments:

Arun said...

Interesting! Did you know that this is actually a creativity technique (not one of those crazy washroom tricks) called 'Flushing'. Where you 'flush' out on a piece of paper what's in your mind or in sight without thinking much about it. Works for me at times.

The ramblings of a shoe fiend said...

Hi Arun. I've done this lots of times when I'm stuck or bored, but I didn't know it was called flushing. It's worked for me too!

Anonymous said...

I bet he must have written-
'She wants me to write something nice about her, but I can't think of any.'

Anonymous said...

Attractive read for whatever reason :)

shub said...

haha so cute:) happy new year shoofs:)

Anonymous said...

what a nice way for me to begin the day :)
(has he written "funny girl with the blue bic needs a better pen"?)

The ramblings of a shoe fiend said...

alpha - :( Hmph. I bet he wrote - Awesome shoes :P

TCC - Don't ask me! I didn't come up with the term. So have you stocked up on Coca Cola yet?

shyam, shub, charu - thanks!

Zette Remi said...

Very nice!

Nessa said...

Hiya, I love the way you write.. I've linked you to my blog 'coz I wanna keep track of all you've got to say :-)

The ramblings of a shoe fiend said...

Thanks Keya and Nessa!