In Which I Fail at Flash Fiction but Sort of Succeed at a Shakespearean Sonnet

Kurt Brindley is currently running a flash fiction contest in the comments section based on a picture of an abandoned car near where he lives. My entry was disqualified for being too long (because I didn’t read the instructions carefully smh!). My second attempt also failed but I got a rough little sonnet out of it which I will post below.

You should go check out the entries though. My favorite is Cocoa Fierce & The Pantyhose Strangler by Sean C. Wright-Neeley. There are some other good ones though. Vote with likes! Make an entry! It’s fun!

“Rusted: A Failure in Rhyme”

It all begins deep within the dark muddy womb of the earth

Nothing then, but an inchoate mass of soil, stone, and ore

Ripped by iron claws in diesel-fueled caesarean birth

Then melted, beaten and molded on the assembly line floor

Sintered, welded, soldered and sewn into something entirely new

A shining metal triumph of human design and engineering

Within the growling engine, gears and pistons firing fast and true

Burning fuel full-speed ahead, guided by Man and power-steering

But friction and time wears down the workings of every machine

And when the belt snaps, the steering fails and the driver loses trust

Abandoning the beast to the ditch as it is, in a grave of leafy green

Where still it lies decaying, fading as ashes to ashes and rust to dust

Little by little returning to the earth from whence it came,

And to the place we all as well, shall too return someday.