
Here’s my response to Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt. This week, the prompt word is ‘flippant’ with a word count of 74. You can read the full post here: https://sammiscribbles.wordpress.com/2022/07/02/weekend-writing-prompt-266-flippant/
There’s a story to this piece. When I read the prompt word ‘flippant’, I immediately thought of an old school friend who flippantly suggested, that if the phone calls to my dad were difficult for me, then I could simply not call him. I was quite upset at the time and haven’t spoken to her since.
Then, today, thinking a little longer about the prompt word, I realized, that I gave a good friend flippant advice once too. Not intentionally. I underestimated her situation. I tried to pretend that things were okay, when they clearly weren’t.
I guess, my old school friend didn’t mean to upset me… Sometimes, we simply get it wrong. Badly.
I am learning. Here’s my poem.
To a friend
I had no idea how bad things were.
Thought youβd get out of whatever made you feel stuck, by sheer luck.
I gave flippant advice, halfhazard titbits of glossy magazine philosophy.
You were clearly clinical, neck craned, staring into dull moonlight, still falling.
Always.
How could I not see that you were getting smaller, distant?
Did we both want to hang on to a normal, long gone, for simple ease, when love required guts?
Did Marie Antionette really say “If they don’t have bread, they can have cake instead?” π
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Perhaps we should credit Marie Antoinette with the ultimate flippant remark! But – here’s the interesting question – could she have said it in 74 words, as Sammi Cox requested???
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Try doing it π
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Britta, I made an effort to write it in 74 words π
https://reinventionsreena.wordpress.com/2022/07/02/the-flippant-queen/
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Experience fails to teach us that this sort of flippant remark is often unwise. More often than not we fail to see that we have hurt feelings!
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Indeed. We know little of the burdens of others. So often we try to help and make it worse. We are only human. π Well done poem, Britta.
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Thank you so much for your comment, Bill. Much appreciated!
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It’s too easy to make a flippant remark inadvertently, not realising the implications of what we’ve said until it’s too late. An excellent take, Britta.
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Thank you, Keith. Much appreciated.
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Beautifully done. A sign of maturity when we can look back and realise we did not see as much as we thought.
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Thank you so much for reading and commenting, Dale. Much appreciated.
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My pleasure.
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