He's a really good dark man

All dark, all base

Like confectionery chocolate

An unyielding, immense thrust of taste

Just the main ingredient

his hot breath, needing

Just the main ingredient...

But, I think he's a really good dark man

Real dark, depraved

Like raw melted marble

I crown at this acquired taste

A basic bark with nothing more to make it bearable

A bitter bark that is sumptuously irremissible

Like confectionery chocolate

The kind that is sour

Just the main ingredient he pants, indulgently

Just the main ingredient...

To test the assumptions

Clburdett, 2015

*Photo by Andrey Lavrishchev

Today was over simplified

It was lived short and forgotten

It was lived, for tomorrow

Today was not burdened with

Wanting to go out and have fun

Today was just me, folding up

I stretched

I ate

I relaxed

Turned my mental tv off

I cleared my mind,

My bills got lost

Today was a good day

I didn't think of anything

I did not repent,

I did not hate

I did not panic

Only rested and

carried on

Today was a still wind,

Tied to a string, tucked into an oyster, sunny side up, donned with eternity

A mild pulse

Over simplified?

I think not....

Clburdett, 2015

Quit wit and slick tongue

Flight swift of young one

Dream sweet all undone

Rain sleet and naked

Slipped up fell to pray

Lip cut washed away

Make-up guise blue-gray

Swept up broken glass

For this week's Friday Feature we are traveling North out of the United States to Canada, where national health care is free and talent is nothing short of abundant.

This particular Proser is an illustrator, graphic design artist, and a social media spitfire.

Susan Wright Boucher, known here as "@Sooz," started out on the east coast of Canada and, through a series of corporate relocations, ended up on the west coast in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia.

"About a year ago I left the 60+ hour corporate work week and now work part-time from home doing employer branding, copywriting and social media management."

Her short story entitled, "Boy Named Sue," appeared in Volume I of The Prose Anthologies, #Death. For more information, and to download the publication, please search "The Prose Anthologies" on Amazon.com.

She was also recently accepted into the Prose Partner Program.

P: What is your relationship with writing and how has it evolved?

S: Writing and language have always fascinated me. For many years the only writing I did was for business. It was getting kind of stale for me until I started writing on Prose. The creative writing challenges have sparked my imagination and rekindled my enthusiasm.

P: Briefly discuss the value that reading adds to both your personal and professional life.

S: I grew up in a home where books were central. Mom and Dad used them for DIY projects and the coffee table always held an interesting assortment of library books for anyone who cared to hunker down for a read. Later on, being an avid business book reader contributed to my career success.

These days I'm making my way through as much colourful fiction as I can get my hands on. I particularly enjoy L. Frank Baum, the author of the Wizard of Oz series (did you know he wrote 14 full-length Oz books?) and Lewis Carroll.

I also adore reading blogs. They give you an unprecedented view of the writer as they're frequently published without professional editing. I do 99% of my reading online (we've run out of room for bookshelves!) but one printed book I'd like to own is Stephen King's "On Writing."

P: How would you describe your current literary ventures and what can we look forward to in future posts?

S: Right now I'm playing with some fiction plots I'd like to write and illustrate. Nothing concrete.

P: What does Prose. mean to you?

S: I appreciate Prose. as a tool but it's really the community that keeps me coming back for more. I'm amazed at what Prosers do with words.

I love the gutsy sharing style of Jeff Stewart [@MetalSymphony], @MiGGiE can grind out a story like no one else, and @Yowwa is absolutely endearing (I have become addicted to the selfies that often accompany his stories).

There are so many other great writers I haven't mentioned...

Another great feature of Prose. is being able to flit from one genre or writing style to another.

Once you're established on a blog or business site, your readers expect a certain homogeneous quality. For example, if I were to start publishing fiction on my blog, I'd lose readers.

Prose. is the perfect place to have fun while exploring other styles.

P: Where else can we find you and your writing?

S: I've been blogging on Plugged In since 2009 and occasionally you'll see me pop up on recruitment and human resources sites. [One of] my latest LinkedIn posts is about writer's block which might be of interest to Prose. readers.

In the aforementioned LinkedIn article, @Sooz refers to Prose as "the best place I've ever found to write and read other authors' work." You can read it in its entirety by copying and pasting the following link into your web browser:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/writers-block-app-susan-wright-boucher

Be sure to follow @Sooz here, on Instagram and Twitter @SWrightBoucher. To learn more about her "Plugged In" blog, please visit https://swrightboucher.wordpress.com/about/ and follow @PluggedInBlog on Twitter.

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This #FridayFeature blog series is designed to help you get to know your fellow community members better. Would you like to nominate someone for interview? Have a question you’re dying to ask of someone on the platform? Send us a private message here or visit our contact page to get in touch: theprose.com/p/contact.

Hello

In my mind mouthed a million times

Only coming out once perfected

Comes out with but reverb, a curse, knowing I'm uncomfortable

Inverse, reverse, everything but getting to converse

where did this sneak it's way in?

I'm so distracted by everything that I can't speak

just one word

that you heard

yet it's not happening

it's too simple can't I do this without liquid encouragement?

Hold on, don't turn away

don't you have forever to wait?

if only but to make me entertained?

of course not, so I force what, seemed masterfully contained

"Hi, My name's such and such, and I've seen you around,

can you tell me what you do in this beaten-dead horse town?"

Your face lights, as though it believed that I might be dead

brought back to life?

and to which you reply

"Nothing out of the ordinary, just try to talk about what's going on in the world! Well, if it's not too scary, and sometimes I manage to go to shows,

well you know when I've managed to acquire some payroll!"

So in rebuttal, from one mind to another I can only jokingly tease

"Aren't the best things in life free? Haven't you heard of pirating your music, I'm sure you're a regular Matey!" and again you laugh, at such poor and crass

attempt at humor, but it begins to put me in a stupor, things are going well!

"Typically I try to be so forthcoming, but it appears as though you know a backstory running! I go to the shows much like some go to church: to pay tribute to those that I have been shaken by, and to indicate that beyond thought that they've merited the upmost worth!"

stunned and shocked, I probably stare too long, but are you Jesus come again? showing us that there's hope for even the lowliest of men?

Are you telling me that you suffer for a greater good ?

Are you just a force to be reckoned with that I've misunderstood?

"Sorry to stare, there's just not many of your kind, same approach surely, but nowhere near the state of mind. What's your name again and from where do you hail? Surely the loveliest of yacht's brought you here by the simple power of it's sails. So foreign and imported, I just want to bring it to scale!"

"Well to take the kaleidoscope out of your eyes, it sounds maybe you're feeding my ears lies, but I'm born and raised from lands nearby. If we've met before, how can there be so much void? When I'm around do you find yourself annoyed? Do us both a favor and let's continue our conversation over food and white noise."

The alarm clock goes off and I remember, man I speak better than that, but that got me a date that I couldn't land with what I know....fer fuck's sake.

There you were at your pulpit, the stand of your power, spewing forth from the orifice centrally fixed all of the romances of ideas that could never be proven. You recant the tales of a tome that the weakest of minds believe was written by immortal beings, it's a shame they don't publish more books or press their pens to paper more often. There you were a conqueror of souls guiding the sheep to inevitable slaughter, under the guise that their innocence would buy a special place in a gated community adorned in gold, or in some cases, that they would inherit 40 virgins for their sacrifice supremely laudable considering you can prove neither happens, plus they're going to take 40 virgins purity with no commitment? Ah is there no death after death for the anger that would cause ?

The commitment you have to learning, reading, and interpretation isn't something that comes up short, but it becomes issue when your offering is " Join us or be hell-bound, wretch." Yet you deliver sermon each and every day as your commitment is unfaltering, surely comparable to the constant burning of the sun, in order to "save souls"...a sick mind would never interpret this as gathering bread and milk... or did I? Mathematically (another sinful art) speaking, an addition to your congregation means that an additional offering can be made, not that every addition creates this, but it does increase the chance, especially when there are principles you've given : 10% of your earnings (which is spoken somewhere?) or what you can to further the glory of a god. Would it be blasphemous to then quote "The best things in life are free" ?

I enjoy awaking knowing I won't be here forever and that I will do the best while I can at no further guarantee that there's a hereafter. I believe there is, I don't know what it will entail but I will do everything to be full of heart to those I meet in this walk-through and to present opportunity to all. But I won't be condemned because I didn't adhere to what another mortal spoke. You find peace in your words with the same unknowing that I have, and I imagine our peace is equivalent. I'll speak my sermon here and there but I'll never ask anyone to commit to me in any further way. Be free your heart and so will follow your mind, at end of day be at peace that all things will happen, some with and some without our choice. In this life find your smile and when it comes to eclipse, find your peace wherever you may go.

Amen.