Masked Peacock

This is a poem I wrote last year... in retrospect, I should have said  peahen because I based this on a female friend... Oh well, let's not get too technical. 

My friend is a study in aviary arts
A masquerading skylark
In untold ways
She is a peacock amidst of a gaggle of geese
A graceful swan between the turkeys
A robin flitting around silently
Her eyes are those of an owl at night
Piercing into the depths of those she speaks to
Her neck is one of a proud ostrich
Surveying the crows with a hawk’s attention
Head held high, she is the early bird
Her ability to memorize and recite—a parrot 
With the voice of a nightingale
A magpie—she steals the shine from all
Her reputation, the soaring eagle
Only I know the vulture within

The Question of Tolerance

Why ramble on about this when one of the best writers of all time has stated so eloquently what I would love to say? Rhetorical question; here's the quote. 

“I remember Christian teachers telling me long ago that I must hate a bad man's actions but not hate the bad man: or, as they would say, hate the sin but not the sinner. ...I used to think this a silly, straw-splitting distinction: how could you hate what a man did and not hate the man? But years later it occurred to me that there was one man to whom I had been doing this all my life -- namely myself. However much I might dislike my own cowardice or conceit or greed, I went on loving myself. There had never been the slightest difficulty about it. In fact the very reason why I hated the things was that I loved the man. Just because I loved myself, I was sorry to find that I was the sort of man who did those things.”

~C.S. Lewis


And here's another one, because it's awesome as well. 


"Our culture has accepted two huge lies. The first is that if you disagree with someone's lifestyle, you must fear or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. You don't have to compromise convictions to be compassionate."

~Rick Warren

Things I Write When I'm Bored

Things are never what they seem to be, especially in the toy industry (Toy Story, anyone?)...

I hate her guts. She is the bane of my existence. Why the heck do I have to marry her?!?! Just because we starred in the same movies, doesn't necessarily mean I love her. Even her name reeks unawesomeness. Barbie. She even has the dorky flower dotting her i's. What the heck, man! I hate her and I'm doomed to be with her forever just because my publicity agents think it's good to have a classic "Barbie and Ken" romance. To hell with romance! I've always loved the Bratz dolls. IS THAT A CRIME!?!?!?!

Let's say I wanted to take a chance and like Barbie-- I can't! Her stupid sister tags along with us wherever we freaking go. Kelly this, Kelly that, and Kelly wants to kill me because I'm taking her sister away-- IT'S NOT LIKE I WANT TO!!! She keeps staring at me with those huge blue eyes but even though she's smiling, I know she's hiding behind a fake mask...

Why am I telling you this? Because my life is about to end. No girls will ever come near me again (let alone the Bratz girls) because my agents have found a way to wreck my life: marriage. 

Weird, yes, but a ploy to take people's attention away from the newer dolls (curse you, Moxie girls!) and to bring some extravagance back to the stupid Barbie franchise. I. Hate. This. I've got to stop it somehow. The ceremony is taking place in a few hours in the cloning room. There they'll have me and Barbie stand still for hours while they zap a squidjillion newer versions of us. 

I've got it!!! I'll go hide in the Polly Pocket section of the factory! No one will ever find me there because poor Polly has been long forgotten. 

"Ken?" Shoot! It's Barbie! "Should we practice some poses before the actual sitting?" I hate how she calls the cloning process a sitting. Like we're getting some stupid portraits done or something. I stare at her. She's so perfect that everyone hates her now. She's the popular girl who got ignored after giving dolls a place in toy legend. I don't have time to feel sentimental right now; Miss Goody Two-Shoes is going to get what's coming to her. I'm going to tell her EXACTLY how I feel. 

"Barbie, I need to tell you something--"
"OH KEN!" she cuts me off. She's squealing and running towards me... What the what? She's always complaining about something. Is that an actual smile or have they re-stretched her plastic-vinyl face? 
"You've tucked your tuxedo into your pants, KEN! Fix it or else we'll never make enough money to own the world." Same old Barbie. Off her rocker and proud of it. 

I open my mouth to start telling her what I'd wanted to say when the priest comes in and... wait a second, the priest?!?! I thought this was just for sale purposes.
"Leo," I growl, turning to find my agent who's strolling up to the cloning platform. "What the hell is going on?"
"Watch your language Ken!" he chuckles. "After all, you are a kids' toy. Let's keep this PG." He flips through a few pages on a clipboard he's carrying and frowns. "Scratch that, just keep it G." Leo, it seems has also gone crazy. This is just great. 

In the shadows underneath the cloning platform, I see Surfer Ken Clone #19434879376 crying... This day keeps getting whackier. "One sec, Leo," I say, "I need to be alone for a few minutes."
"Sure thing, Ken! Just remember, we've got to make things official because it as to be in full order before we start cloning. The company doesn't want kids getting any ideas about illegitimate children and fake marriages. You understand."

I don't have time to process what I'd heard. I knew something fishy was going on but if my hunch was right, then I could easily solve this problem. I ran to Surfer Ken Clone #19434879376 and asked him why he was crying.
"I know I'm a clone and I'm not supposed to have feelings," he sobbed, "but I love Barbie and it hurts to watch you marry her." The guy was in hysterics and began to rock back and forth, crying and sobbing Barbie's name...

It was perfect. We swapped clothes and we both couldn't have been any happier. They think they may have tricked me into marrying the woman I most hate but I know better. I laugh in joy as the priest pronounces them husband and wife.




Still underneath the cloning platform, I hear someone giggling behind me. Scared that someone important knew what was going on, I whip around ready to knock them out. It's Yasmin! YASMIN FROM THE BRATZ GIRLS! I smile at her because I know that this is the beginning of something beautiful. 

To be continued? For our sanity, let's hope not. 

Tangled Ever After-- With Illustrations

I've got so many story ideas it's not even funny... Although it's beyond me why having a marvellous brain chock-full of ideas would provoke any form of hilarity. It is to be admired, not laughed at.

 This was something I thought up a while ago and quickly typed before I could forget it (like all my other wonderful ideas. Curse you, short term memory!). 

ONCE UPON A TIME

Rapunzel and Flynn Rider (darling Eugene Fitzherbert) are on their honeymoon...

...and they decide to go back to the tower for a reminder of how they met-- call them sentimental.

They are surprised when Mother Gothel turns out to be alive-- the small dust particles that blew apart at the end of the movie rejoined because of her ginormous evil powers.... That means even through cremation she will come back to life. Let that sink in for a moment. 

Awesome butt-kicking ensues and a strange turn of events as Mother Gothel joins forces with Maximums (she bribes him with apples). 

Mother Gothel starts a face off...

literally...

Rapunzel obviously wins because she did her face IN COLOUR! 

And she's got way more faces to show.

And although Mother Gothel can do a pretty good moue...

We all know what she REALLY looks like.

In the end, Maximus leaves the dark side to come back to his friends. 

They frolic...

...and live happily ever after.

Yay me.

Let Me Give You Bad Advice: Shopping Is The Cure

Whenever I feel stressed about classes, the best thing to take my mind off of an overload of assignments-- two English essays, major history essay, linguistics test, and history presentation-- is shopping!!!

I think I might be a shopaholic given the fact that I feel guilty later on when I look at all the stuff I don't need BUT why worry about that when I can show you what I bought today?!

This lovely person, makes sensational jewellery. I've treated myself to the following:

I mean, really, a golden snitch bracelet is a must-have in any girl's accessory collection.

I was a bit torn buying this one because if you go to the shop's link, there are SO many beautiful pocket-watch necklaces.

THIS IS ADORABLE. And I've yet to invest in some owl jewellery so this was a perfect indulgence. 

By the buy (haha, see what I did there?), Etsy is a fantastic website for any fangirl (or fanboy) because it's got loads of products by people as obsessed with Harry Potter/LOTR/The Hunger Games/ whatever-else-you-can-think-of-to-fangirl (or fanguy)- about. Sigh, now if only shipping wasn't that expensive... 

In Which We Realize I LOVE Drama

For my creative writing class in uni last semester, we had to write a scene for a play. Here's an excerpt I'm really proud of:

HUDA  

 (Takes MANAAR’s left hand. The lights dim. A spotlight is trained on HUDA. She looks at the audience and speaks.)

 I stood in the middle of a turquoise lake. The sky was black. I spit stars and blew them up to it because I didn’t want to be lonely. Earth was flat and this lake was at the edge of the world. There was a huge boulder at the edge and he was sitting on it. He was trailing his hands in the water that was flowing off the cliff. I walked on the water. I had his soccer cleats on—they were too big but I wanted to wear them. I sat down beside him and we looked down at the black hole. We were breathing in tandem and each time we breathed out, a star would fall. He said he missed me and the black hole was filled with the stars. It was all silver and glowing.

     (Pause)

 The light sort of made his face disappear and I started panicking because I wanted the stars back in the right place. I let him put his head on my shoulder and the moment when he fell asleep I pushed him off of Earth and kicked his shoes down after him.

     (The lights brighten again and HUDA looks at MANAAR)

The stars went back and I drowned. What does that even mean?

©Fatemah

The One With The New Blog

This new blog is sort of like getting a new notebook. You don't want to wreck the beautiful, creamy pages yet your fingers are itching to bring words and ideas to life. Welcome to my world. Consider yourself privileged, not many people get to experience my craziness. Fasten your seatbelts.