The Ballad of Yeltsa Kcir

The Beach Is Here. I Wish You Were Beautiful.

20 May 2022

  • This is the story of the wrong pen which I grabbed when I was going to write a postcard to my best friend Abby while vacationing on Sao Beach in Vietnam.
    Benjamin C avatarBenjamin C4/8/22 3:56pm
  • See, when I grabbed the pen it fit snugly in my hand. I was utterly convinced this pen was mine, but then I went to write the postcard, and that’s where the trouble began. “Bear Baby,” it wrote, “I’m currently napalming the beach in Vietnam and massacring citizens. Wish me luck!”
    Jay K avatarJay K4/9/22 5:28am
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    @benjaminchandler
  • All the leaves were brown, and the sky was grey. The fields were on fire, on a cloudy day. Or at least that’s the picture this occult pen tried to paint. I was no fortunate son. I was just a tourist visiting Vietnam. The pen moved in my hand, seemingly with a mind of its own.
    Jacob S avatarJacob S4/11/22 5:29am
    Inactive BOMB icon1
    @benjaminchandler
  • I was just creating a pastiche, lines stolen from popular songs and poems. I needed to write from my own life, my own experience, my own gut. I needed to write the truth.
    Sean K avatarSean K4/13/22 2:37am
    Inactive HEART icon1
    @benjaminchandler
  • So, after weeks of writer's block and copying from existing work, weeks of feeling like no words could express the truth of what I felt, I sat down at the piano, pencil and blank sheet music in hand, and began to write.
    LyraMadeline avatarLyraMadeline5/3/22 1:48am
    Inactive HEART icon1
    @benjaminchandler
  • Hours went by, and at the end, I played my new opus to the crowds. Turned out what I’d written was a note-by-note recreation of “Never Gonna Give You Up”… in reverse. Oh well. I’ve written worse.
    Phil H avatarPhil H5/20/22 10:12pm
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    @benjaminchandler
    @seanking

The End