Catharsis: A Sestina

This short story is an entry in the 2003 Soc.Sexuality.Spanking Summer Short Story Contest and is copyright by the author and commercial use is prohibited without permission. Personal/private copies are permitted only if complete including the copyright notice. The author would appreciate your comments

Category: Verse
A sestina is an old verse form consisting of six sestets -- six line stanzas -- followed by one triplet. The words that end the lines of the first sestet are reused in each subsequent sestet, in a fixed pattern. For more on this form, see:
http://www.uni.edu/~gotera/CraftOfPoetry/sestina.html
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Villa/8287/sestina.htm
http://www.english.upenn.edu/files/Authors/af/wwwilreis/88/sestina.html.
I have wanted to try my hand at one for a long time, and I just did. I hope you like it.

Third Place

Don A. Landhill <DLandhill@aol.com>

She turned about, and saw me raise my crop.
She winced, eyes glinting, almost filled with tears,
And said, "Is not my punishment enough?"
"My bottom sore, my self-respect in shreds,
"But you should wish to rend it once again
"And all for such a trivial offence?"

"'Twas disrespect, my love, no light offense,
"And quite enough to earn six of the crop."
"But what is worse, what I'll not have again,
"What I will punish for, although your tears
"May drown you, though you cry your throat to shreds,
"Is mistreatment of yourself - I've had enough!"

With that I stopped, for I had said enough.
I pointed to the bench, where her offense
Would be addressed. I would not let her tear herself to shreds
Far better that I shred her with the crop
And let her reach catharsis in her tears
Than that we soon must do this all again.

She stood. I pointed to the bench again,
And said, "You will obey." She paused enough
I feared she would refuse, then through her tears
Walked slowly to the bench. "My great offense
"Was not the disrespect. For that, the crop
"Is punishment enough. But shame that shreds

"My soul, is due for what I've done. I tore to shreds
"Your trust in me. How ever will you trust me now again?"
I blinked. "We've sown the seeds of discord. But the crop
"Has not ripened, and it shall not. I have acted quick enough
I think, to nip this in the bud." She laughed then, and her laugh gave no offense
At such moments there's no distance between laughter quick, and tears.

But soon enough, she turned again to tears
As her rear reddened, welted, almost came to shreds
And paid the forfeit for her grave offense.
Then quiet, and she came to earth again.
She spoke, and I knew, her punishment's enough,
Her self, more than her rear, striped by the crop.

Now this offence will not occur again;
For punishment enough will knit the shreds,
And stitch the psyche together, glue with tears, using the red-hot needle of the crop.

The End

Reviews

Ted <Quixotoes(at)aol(dot)com>
I am not familiar with nor enamored of this verse form, but the imagery, language and theme would have excelled in any genre. Although the meter had the required number of syllables, it did not scan easily when read aloud. But, perhaps because of the olde form, the poem brought mental pictures of Victorian justice to mind, and I liked it.

Jessie
That one would take up the challenge of attempting a form used successfully by so few major modern poets is enough to earn points in my book! And the relative obscurity of the form makes it original.

Read aloud, the verse flows very well. The play of words is a delight to read, particularly the creative manipulation of the end-words. This poem is emotionally evocative and quite tender. Very well done.

Rosa
A well written spanko sestina. I think you did an excellent job with this difficult poetic structure. Good links to information on the sestina for the readers was a bonus! Through the links, I read several sestinas to get a feel for the form. One of the introductions warned that the repetition could get under your skin. Knowing the repetition was a key element of this form, I was able to really appreciate the challenge it offered and enjoy the creative way you made it work. You wrote a lovely sestina -- full of emotion, tension, need and release. Outstanding!!

Contest information Previous Story Next Story Story index