Prompt Tuesday #21

Every Tuesday I post a writing prompt and my response. It gives me a chance to exercise my writing muscles outside of my WIP, and hopefully inspire you to write. So enjoy my flash fiction piece and post your own in the comments!

Prompt

Source: The Writer's Idea Book third prompt on page 117.

Create a metaphor for regret, a physical object that embodies the feeling or allows you to explore the feeling in a fresh way. Begin with a metaphorical statement: “Regret is…” and move from there.

Response

Regret is a swirling whirlpool. Around and around the thoughts and feelings take. If I succumb to them they drag me down. Down to the depths of sorrow. If I fight them, they grow. More and more regrets make me move slower and slower. I can't escape, I can't break free. If only I could go back and make it right. Regret presses on me, pulls me down.

The from the edge, the calm waters of the sea, a rope is thrown to me. A life line of safety. A path to peace. I catch hold of the rope and for a while the regrets flow pass me. I am not strong enough to withstand the tide. My thoughts keep turning and returning. Rewinding events and reliving them. It takes my own effort to drag myself out of the whirlpool, out of the pit. Using the rope to guide me I finally find freedom.

I take a few steps, make a few mistakes. And I am in the whirlpool again.