The Carnal Uncanny: The Body and Beyond (Part 2)
a cliche-busting prompt
PROMPT
Take a cliché like “sweet tooth,” and turn it into its opposite like “evil tooth that makes me eat little girls” as poet Russell Edson does (below). Then use a second cliché and make it literal as in a girl literally made of “sugar and spice and everything nice.”
SWEET TOOTH
BY: RUSSELL EDSON
A little girl made of sugar and spice and everything nice was eaten by someone with a sweet tooth the size of an elephant’s tusk.
Ah, he said, this darn tooth, it’s driving me nuts.
Then another voice is heard. It’s the little girl’s father who says, have you seen a little girl made of sugar and spice and everything nice?--Incidentally, what’s that thing sticking out of your mouth like an elephant’s tusk?
My sweet tooth, and it’s really driving me nuts.
You ought to see a dentist.
But he might want to pull it, and I don’t like people pulling at me. If they want to pull they should pull at their own pullables.
So true, said the little girl’s father, people should pull at their own pullables and let other people's pullables alone. But still, he asked again, I wonder if you’ve seen a little girl made of sugar and spice and everything nice?
NEW CLASSES
Awaken Your Inner Word Witch - IN PERSON at Haus Witch in Salem on 9/7
The Carnal Uncanny: The Body and Beyond: Begins 9/8 at Writing Co-Lab
Writing with Witch Archetypes Begins on Wet Ink on 9/8