Daily Theme 1

1. Set a scene in which something will happen—or in which something has happened (or, just as likely, both): a death or an argument, say, or a revelation. But don’t say what has happened or what will: allow that to be implied as part of the scene you evoke. If you like, choose a scene that entails some deliberate preparation: a meal, a ceremony (official and institutional or improvised and individual), a game, a job. The type of scene, actual or imagined, is up to you. From what point of view is it seen? Who sees it? What are the limits of that point of view? 



The garbage trucks' symphony of ringing, clacking, and bashing resounds through the poster-plastered walls of his modest dorm room. Speeding city buses sing to the tune of police sirens and power drills. At one time, the discordant rattles and shrieks had been the most effective alarm clock he had ever endured. Much to his surprise, however, he had grown accustomed to the chirps of modern technology and cheeps of ambling passersby. Dull winter's light filters through the rather ineffective Ikea curtains, and a chilly January breeze escapes through a crack in his lone window, stirring the papers atop a faux-hazelnut desk. Eyes still closed, he inches his feet off of his stiff twin bed onto the comfortingly familiar polyester, black rug he brought back from his Iowa home. He reaches for the spindly grey lamp, another relic from his Ikea heist back in August, and pulls the chain to illuminate his cloistered space. With reluctance, he cracks a single lid open. Blinded at first by the astonishing amount of light emitted from the sickly-looking lamp, he crouches and searches under his high-set bed for his flip-flops. Grabbing his worn toothbrush and toiletry bag, he reaches for the towel slung upon the back of faux-hazelnut chair. Wrapping the towel around himself, he bashes his elbow into a bedpost. He pauses, snarls in pain, and takes a deep breath of stale air. Recovered, he reaches for the single's closed door, and tugs on the handle. He sets off into the dark common room, ready to embark upon semester.