Inspired by an assignment I had for my creative writing class, I wrote this article back in January. I was inspired to do another, now split into two parts. Here are 13 MORE songs for the writer — flash fiction pieces inspired by song lyrics. Stay tuned for part two!
1. "Animal Spirits" by Vulfpeck
This is a true love story song — a triumph and a Glory song. Come listen close! We have more to say. Let me lead you through the way one walked before you walked around here, through the jungle, the fog, the clear. It's a song for the centuries, listen close! Or you'll miss it.
2. "Banana Pancakes" by Jack Johnson
Can't you see that it's just raining? Ain't no need to go outside. Ain't no need to do anything today, this lazy day, when we can let the phone ring and sleep in past nine. Can you hear the raindrops hitting the roof? They’re telling us to stay in, to be lazy, to let that piece of burnt toast linger between the silver claws of our battered toaster for a few more minutes. Slip and stay in this languor with me, this tranquility of shiftless delight.
3. "Cherry Wine" by Hozier
Her eyes and words are so icy, but she burns like rum on the fire. She’s quick and quick-witted, smiling like she knows my and the world’s secrets. Her voice is soothing, then bitter, like the running of whiskey down my throat. She’s emblematic of violence and the deepest love. Love that can move mountains — violence that can tear them down.
4. "Dancing in the Moonlight" by King Harvest
When that moon is big and bright, it's a supernatural delight! The world is bathed in hot winds and clothed in a silky dress stitched of moonbeams and cacophonous laughter — the uncontrollable giggles of dancing girls and the mirth-filled smiles of the boys beside them. The moon arcs over the sky, and they twist and turn, falling into a dreamless slumber as the sunrise burns the horizon.
5. "Everything is Yours" by Kehlani
Up at a time when I shouldn't be, thinking about things that I shouldn't be. Sad over something that could have been — a should have been that didn’t seem right in the moment but feels so now. Is it only time and distance that draws these feelings from me? Dare I do what my mind begs me not to do?
6. "Flowers" by Astn
I’ve been running around all day picking these flowers for you. I've got roses in red and daffodils in yellow for the nights we spent in my apartment and the days we spent hiding from the sun. I've got lilies and chrysanthemums, but your touch withers and wilts them.
7. "Girls" by Sing Street
Sometimes I pull myself apart; I shift my shape the way I change my colors. Find me in the ensnaring, regal esophagus at the Met or in the dregs of a coffee of a passerby. I’m at once the queen of everything and the servant to nothingness. I’m the perfect pairing and the mortal enemy, the deadly foe and the perfect companion. Catch me if you can — and I can run to you.
8. "Heal" by Tom Odell
Take my mind and take my pain like an empty bottle takes the rain. Press my head to yours with soothing empathy and cut the spaces between my fingers with yours. Hold my cheeks and tell me pain beyond this moment won’t last. Cup your hands beneath my eyes and brush the streaks of my tears along my chin. Fill within me the missing things, or act as something constant until I can fill it myself. Tell me pain beyond this moment won’t last. Beyond this moment tell me pain won’t last.
9. "Into Yellow" by Martin Luke Brown
I cried with you in the coldest dark. We clasped our hands together, looking at the long, wooden platform sitting before us. It had been placed on the grass earlier today; and this grass, a flattened foundation for the illustrious years of cleated feet and touchdowns, the home of rivalries, the forgotten Friday nights washed away by liquor and monotony, and the springtime ceremony to commemorate that year’s graduating class, supported this platform, a stage upon which we would have taken the final steps into our future, where school board members would have shaken our hands and delivered on a diploma our names, written in ink, the paper crisp from a fresh print. The class of 2017 —whole for the first time. But tonight, each eye cried for a different reason. This field was set up for a night of celebration, but celebration was flattened by our feet into the muddy grass, too. Instead of the innumerable hats thrown into the air with adrenalized excitement, feelings of regret, exasperation, yearning, disappointment, and all their nuances settled and hardened into the hands of the kids who on the platform took a seat not meant for them. We sat huddled and united as the night stretched on. We looked upwards at the black sky and mourned a girl whose time, we thought, would at least go on past tonight.
10. "Jealous" by Beyoncé
I'm in my penthouse half-naked; I cooked this meal for you naked. But where are you? I haven't heard from you in hours. Maybe you're working late or stuck in traffic, or maybe you're hurt — but maybe you're with her. Is it too harsh for me to guess that you're with her? You've lied to me so many times, and I keep taking you back. Maybe it's fair that you're with her. I'm too aggressive about the situation anyway. But where the hell are you?
11. "Killing Me" by Luke Sital-Singh
Sweetheart, would you wake up today? It's been too long since I heard your voice. It's been too long since you've seen my face. Can you feel me holding your hand? Mine's a little stiff from the time its spent in yours, but I won't let go. You can count on me for that. Can you hear my voice? If I whisper each detail of my day, would you wake up sooner to chastise me for the inessential details and unnecessary ramblings like you did a few days ago? Only a few days ago. I would give the air I breathe to go back to a few days ago. Just a few days ago.
12. "Let's Go" by Khalid
Can you feel this energy? This is the start of something great. The sun beats down, and I can feel the onset of a sunburn — but your arm is enough to block its rays from reddening my skin. Your kiss, instead, burns my lips. I go back again, and again, and again, and despite the crowd surrounding us, I can't help myself pressing my lips against yours. The ubiquitous sun blends with the sway of the crowd and the throb of a summer-soaked night ahead.
13. "Masollan" by Balmorhea
I'm dancing around your room. Red walls, black tendrils, crooked smile, glowing eyes. It smells like coconuts and musty vanilla, a combination I never thought I could put together but one I enjoy endlessly. Songs play through your speaker, and you ask me — “What about this one? Have you heard of her? Or him?” I’m dancing around your room to a song that’ll always speak to me in your voice. And now, you’re dancing around me, like the shadows on the walls from your lampshade, like our elusivities, our inabilities. We’re dancing around our room.
