Poem: "To Be Gentle and Kind"
Jul. 25th, 2023 02:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem was written for Prompt 7: Zinnia / Bonus Prompt Red Rose in the ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
sunshine_challenge. It also fills the "red" square of my 7-1-23 card for the Fireworks Bingo fest. It belongs to the series Eloquent Souls.
"To Be Gentle and Kind"
[Tuesday, July 25, 2023]
Zinnia Innis spent the afternoon
walking up and down Iowa City
with a backpack of handouts
for the homeless youth.
She couldn't fix whatever
put them on the streets, but
she could make sure they
had fresh socks and soap
and a few meal bars.
Most were polite and
appreciative, some
laconic, a few creepy.
"You keep being so nice
to people, someone's going
to think that you're soft and
take advantage of you,"
one guy warned her.
"It takes strength
to be gentle and kind,"
the next boy said.
"And to stand up
for someone you don't
even know," Zinnia said.
She had been waiting so long
to hear the Words, and now she
took off her plaid flannel shirt to show
her tank top and the surreal image of
a zinnia-headed lady beside the writing.
Shyly the redheaded boy tugged up
his pants leg to reveal the red rose
and her Words written above it,
now dusted with glister.
"I'm Darry Reynolds,"
he said. "Pleased
to meet you. "I've
been trying to live up
to your Words for years."
"Zinnia Innis," she said,
laughing, "and I've been
trying to live up to yours."
"I guess we bring out
the best in each other,"
Darry said with a smile.
"We sure do," Zinnia said.
"So Darry, would you like
to come home with me?"
"I would love to," he said,
tucking his hand in hers.
* * *
Notes:
Zinnia Innis -- She has fair skin, brown eyes, and long straight brown hair. She is tall and slim. Her heritage is American; she speaks English. She is 19 years old in 2023.
Zinnia lives in Iowa City, Iowa. There she volunteers to help homeless youth. That's how she met her soulmate, Darry Reynolds. Her soulmark from him (on her left upper arm) shows a woman with a zinnia head and reads, It takes strength to be gentle & kind. She has always tried to live up to those Words. His soulmark from her (on his right calf) has a red rose and reads, And to stand up for someone you don't even know. Zinnia wears outdoorsy girl clothes. Her base colors are blue and white, accented with pink and green.
Zinnia Innis' soulmark from Darry Reynolds
(on her left upper arm, a woman with a zinnia head alongside the Words)
It takes strength to be gentle & kind
Darry Reynolds' soulmark from Zinnia Innis
(on his right calf, a red rose and above it the Words)
And to stand up for someone you don't even know.
Darry Reynolds -- He has fair skin, green eyes, and wavy red hair cut short. He is short and sturdy. His heritage is Irish-American. He speaks English. He is 18 years old in 2023.
Darry lives in Iowa City, Iowa. He has been homeless for over a year after fleeing an abusive home. That's how he met his soulmate, Zinnia Innis, who volunteers to help homeless youth. His soulmark from her (on his right calf) has a red rose and reads, And to stand up for someone you don't even know. He has always tried to live up to those Words. Her soulmark from him (on her left upper arm) shows a woman with a zinnia head and reads, It takes strength to be gentle & kind. Darry wears outdoorsy boy clothes in bright shades of blue, green, and purple.
Darry Reynolds' soulmark from Zinnia Innis
(on his right calf, a red rose and above it the Words)
And to stand up for someone you don't even know.
Zinnia Innis' soulmark from Darry Reynolds
(on her left upper arm, a woman with a zinnia head alongside the Words)
It takes strength to be gentle & kind
sunshine_challenge. It also fills the "red" square of my 7-1-23 card for the Fireworks Bingo fest. It belongs to the series Eloquent Souls."To Be Gentle and Kind"
[Tuesday, July 25, 2023]
Zinnia Innis spent the afternoon
walking up and down Iowa City
with a backpack of handouts
for the homeless youth.
She couldn't fix whatever
put them on the streets, but
she could make sure they
had fresh socks and soap
and a few meal bars.
Most were polite and
appreciative, some
laconic, a few creepy.
"You keep being so nice
to people, someone's going
to think that you're soft and
take advantage of you,"
one guy warned her.
"It takes strength
to be gentle and kind,"
the next boy said.
"And to stand up
for someone you don't
even know," Zinnia said.
She had been waiting so long
to hear the Words, and now she
took off her plaid flannel shirt to show
her tank top and the surreal image of
a zinnia-headed lady beside the writing.
Shyly the redheaded boy tugged up
his pants leg to reveal the red rose
and her Words written above it,
now dusted with glister.
"I'm Darry Reynolds,"
he said. "Pleased
to meet you. "I've
been trying to live up
to your Words for years."
"Zinnia Innis," she said,
laughing, "and I've been
trying to live up to yours."
"I guess we bring out
the best in each other,"
Darry said with a smile.
"We sure do," Zinnia said.
"So Darry, would you like
to come home with me?"
"I would love to," he said,
tucking his hand in hers.
* * *
Notes:
Zinnia Innis -- She has fair skin, brown eyes, and long straight brown hair. She is tall and slim. Her heritage is American; she speaks English. She is 19 years old in 2023.
Zinnia lives in Iowa City, Iowa. There she volunteers to help homeless youth. That's how she met her soulmate, Darry Reynolds. Her soulmark from him (on her left upper arm) shows a woman with a zinnia head and reads, It takes strength to be gentle & kind. She has always tried to live up to those Words. His soulmark from her (on his right calf) has a red rose and reads, And to stand up for someone you don't even know. Zinnia wears outdoorsy girl clothes. Her base colors are blue and white, accented with pink and green.
Zinnia Innis' soulmark from Darry Reynolds
(on her left upper arm, a woman with a zinnia head alongside the Words)
It takes strength to be gentle & kind
Darry Reynolds' soulmark from Zinnia Innis
(on his right calf, a red rose and above it the Words)
And to stand up for someone you don't even know.
Darry Reynolds -- He has fair skin, green eyes, and wavy red hair cut short. He is short and sturdy. His heritage is Irish-American. He speaks English. He is 18 years old in 2023.
Darry lives in Iowa City, Iowa. He has been homeless for over a year after fleeing an abusive home. That's how he met his soulmate, Zinnia Innis, who volunteers to help homeless youth. His soulmark from her (on his right calf) has a red rose and reads, And to stand up for someone you don't even know. He has always tried to live up to those Words. Her soulmark from him (on her left upper arm) shows a woman with a zinnia head and reads, It takes strength to be gentle & kind. Darry wears outdoorsy boy clothes in bright shades of blue, green, and purple.
Darry Reynolds' soulmark from Zinnia Innis
(on his right calf, a red rose and above it the Words)
And to stand up for someone you don't even know.
Zinnia Innis' soulmark from Darry Reynolds
(on her left upper arm, a woman with a zinnia head alongside the Words)
It takes strength to be gentle & kind
(no subject)
Date: 2023-07-26 02:06 am (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2023-07-26 02:21 am (UTC)I'm happy to hear that. :D She's a sweet girl.
>> (and I really am fascinated by the soul marks in your poems) <<
Yay! To make this series, I looked up lists of soulmark / soulbond tropes and then picked things that seemed to fit together. I wanted to go beyond the usual portrayals to show how soulmarks could solve some challenges while creating others. I've had a lot of fun with this.
You can request more during any relevant prompt call.
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2023-07-26 02:58 am (UTC)I will keep that in mind in the future
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2023-07-26 03:03 am (UTC)Re: Thank you!
Date: 2023-07-29 02:42 am (UTC)Re: Thank you!
Date: 2023-07-29 03:02 am (UTC)Re: Thank you!
Date: 2023-07-29 03:05 am (UTC)Re: Thank you!
Date: 2023-07-27 03:28 pm (UTC)Re: Thank you!
Date: 2023-07-27 07:30 pm (UTC)If you want to prompt for this on Tuesday ("Easterns as a Genre") I found several candidate hurricanes in historic records:
* 1877 Hurricane Four Florida Panhandle
* The Bahamas-North Carolina Hurricane of 1883
* The Great Charleston Hurricane of 1893
* 1893 New York hurricane, also known as the Midnight Storm
* 1898 Georgia hurricane
Do any of these appeal to you?
At that timeframe, one person with a disaster-related soulmark traveling in search of a soulmate could become the spark of disaster relief efforts. Furthermore, it's the kind of soulmark context that could happen more than once, leading other people to follow along. It seems like an interesting premise. Shall I save this for Tuesday?
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2023-07-27 09:37 pm (UTC)Specifically what I was thinking...
I've mentioned some of my volunteer work in some of my comments, and from that volunteering I know people who have survived various sorts of humanitarian troubles (and/or know other people who do). Most of these people also have different mother languages than I do, which in this soulmark 'verse would narrow things down.
Imagine someone's soulmark manifests in one of the local-to-disaster languages with some sort of hint - a reference to an address, a local landmark, or the type of disaster. person coming in for the relief effort could at least narrow their search down to a country or specific crisis, and maybe even to a specific city or relief hub. Conversely, the local soulmate would know to seek out potential helpers of XYZ language group or nationality and would be predisposed to trust at least that specific group of outsiders.
Oh, and for disasters - the kind of disasters I would think of are things like the earthquake in Haiti from 2010, the Taliban takeover, the earthquake in Turkey/Syria/Aleppo a couple of years back, the complete mayhem in the Haitian capital a few years ago.
You could also add things like the Ukranian war, the tsunami in Japan, any of several examples of capsizing boats of refugees.
I'm sure that some examples would have cropped up in WWII or the Holocaust, and that might actually be a more positive counterpoint to your other Holocaust-soulmark story.
If you don't like any of those disaster ideas or you want to tell a different story go for it. Or, it could even be a plot that is used more than once, with a couple of different plotlines.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-07-28 02:27 pm (UTC)You're welcome!
Date: 2023-07-28 06:14 pm (UTC)