Since

Thank you for all your contributions to the 100 Word page on “Phoenix.” There is much beauty among the ones chosen for publication, also deep thought, apart from the craft it takes to say it within a hundred words. There is one warning us of impending disaster if we do not take climate change seriously, that already ‘my predecessor flies among you, dangling a flare from his beak’; one that captures the futility of all life – as ‘time was a bird with a boulder accessoried’; one that likens the poem here to a phoenix, to pass away within a month; and two that connected it with love.

The theme for December is “Remember”. Please send in your contributions before the 18th of December as an attached word file to hundredwordsst@ gmail.com. Please also mention the word count, with your name and address. Please note that the work sent to this page maybe edited.

Madhubhashini Disanayaka

Ratnayake

Hear my wings flapping, the ash swirling in violent torrents in the air, and the sound of crackling embers filling the forest when I rise in another millennium, after raging forests have burnt down the planet, emptying it of every living creature, of cities milling with crowds, of every person in every hamlet. Hear all this and be still. My predecessor flies among you, dangling a flare from his beak.

Ramya Chamalie Jirasinghe