This is my response to Trifecta's Writing Challenge for the transitive verb, to weep. It was inspired by Elly at BugginWord. Have you seen her play the uke yet?!
Also, does anyone know what a transitive verb might actually be? Feel free to let me know!
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I’d noticed they’d get full, I’d seen that they got bigger than large. Sometimes, when she slept longer than usual or even right before she ate I could pop a spray straight across the room. But this one time? On a really hot day? I took a quick trip to the Home Depot to grab something we needed desperately for our renovations. I was dressed only in a skirt and a light shirt when a nearby baby started to cry and they began to weep.
Though it started slowly, it was unstoppable and impossible to hide. Through the bra and the top, it quickly formed a milky lake on the cool concrete floor.
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This week we are using the third definition for weep, as found in Merriam Webster's Online Dictionary.
3: to exude (a fluid) slowly : ooze (a tree weeping sap)
That was Awesome. It's funny how these recollections from others can evoke the physical sensations of our own similar experiences.
ReplyDeleteWhy thank you, J. Lactation is one of those things some guys *think* they "get", but you have to be on the inside of the joke to join the club. (Maybe kind of like being as the constant mercy of one's penis is something I have yet to understand.)
DeleteA transitive verb is one that takes an object. The breasts wept milk. In this case, the object is implied rather than stated. And ten thousand recently-scoured resources tell me that this is perfectly acceptable. :-)
ReplyDelete(Formal comment to come later.)
(I hated breastfeeding my kids.)
I like acceptable. I had very mixed feelings on breastfeeding, as I do about everything. Remember, I'm squeamish about feeling my own pulse *gag*. And yet I persevered.
DeleteOh YEAH. (I hated breastfeeding, too). First, you know a verb is transitive if you don't have an object (either stated or implied) and the sentence makes no sense. You couldn't say "I carried" without provoking English Geeks the world over to scream "I carried WHAT"?
ReplyDeleteSecond. Breastfeeding story. I worked for this company. It sucked. I was breastfeeding my daughter, pumping about every two hours (it felt like) and got stuck in this meeting one day. I had breast pads (horrid chafing things), but they must have slipped aside or gotten overloaded. Anyway, as the meeting continued-to-not-end and I started to think about how to get away to pump, the company president (who had been droning on and on) just started staring at me. He kept looking away and then being drawn back. And I knew without even looking that I had a growing wet stain across my front. Fastest meeting ending EVER.
Third. I LOVE the way the subject develops slowly, so that the reader must go back and read the first part again once the weeping object is revealed. "I could pop a spray across the room" was awesome. It made my breasts remember that horrible overfull feeling. {shudder}
Okay, your sentence is (almost) greek to me, but more because I am truly lazy in the mind than because you have failed to explain well. (I know because despite my mental reluctance, I read your explanation three times to make sure I got it. I blame it on lack of sleep, but I had the same problems pre-kids, when I slept just fine!)
DeleteThanks for your comments and your story. I can only imagine the pain your boss was in ... *snicker*
Thanks for the link to my photo - it's generated a fair bit of traffic. I would love to know what people thought. Sorry for posting this here, but I don't think I have an e-mail addy for you.
ReplyDeleteBasinah, you can write whatever you want here! Glad that you got some traffic. I'm going to write about my favourite photo sites later in the month (which in my time means within the next three ...)
DeleteRemember this kind of thing only too well.
ReplyDeleteThanks for joining us for this week's Trifecta Writing Challenge. You've clearly written on a topic to which many of us can relate. My favorite part of this was "bigger than large." Quite clever. I also like the way the breasts take on a character of their own, never named directly, but nonetheless looming bigger than large as main characters in your piece. Hope you'll join us again next week.
ReplyDeleteI saw Toni Collette on the graham Norton show talking about how unprepared she was for the reality of lactation, and about how far she could "shoot." ("I could hit that camera way over there.") It was hilarious.
ReplyDeleteThat I would love to hear. I took great pleasure in spraying my husband and my children, and laughing maniacally. No one is prepared for that show. No one.
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