Pulling the plug
The words coalesced into fully-formed phrases before you ever had a chance to write them down. So when the opportunity arrived to commit them to paper (at last!), you had no need for hesitation or deliberation; the words were made real as fast as your hand could make them so. It was as though you had unplugged a drain from the bottom of the pool of your thoughts, allowing them to gush through, and then…
And then.
The words that had threatened to tear you apart at the seams have now all been expelled, and yet you know you’re not empty. You know you’re not done.
Tap your sweaty fingertips on the desk, take a drink from the glass you’d forgotten was sharing the table with you, gaze blankly around you with faintly stinging eyes, and wonder: do you feel compelled to continue because something under the surface demands to be expressed? Or are you just in the mood to drag your pen across paper?
… and two steps back
We had been so close.