Greetings fellow Steemians! Here is my 21st 5 minute freewrite. The prompt is: "brand".

The Strangeling, my ongoing sci-fi series using the freewrite prompts, is getting pretty intense, and the writing is feeling more and more high stakes. Every time I sit down to write I think: "Whatever I write next will determine the entire arc of the storyline to come."

This makes me nervous. So to loosen up, I'm going to do a stream of consciousness freewrite! Lolo I might just do this every time if it helps XD

Freewriting is a daily practice for most poets and fiction writers, designed to loosen up and get things flowing, like stretching before exercise. Visual artists, especially those who draw or paint from life (figures, landscapes, still lives, etc) do something similar in "gesture drawings". After reading several of @poetrybyjeremy's freewrite posts, I got excited to try these again. Many thanks to @mariannewest for hosting this daily freewrite!
https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/day-152-5-minute-freewrite-tuesday-prompt-brand

https://pixabay.com/en/bar-code-information-data-business-sale--24157/

Team Spirit

Branded
Owned
Where do you belong?
Who claims your allegiance?
Does your buying power
The gift of your consumption
Your attention
Your flat
Shiny
Plastic affection
Go to Nike or Adidas
Facebook or Twitter
Coke or Sprite
Wait:

Do those $100 jeans
Give you a sense of purpose
Of belonging
Do the Broncos love you
Does Taylor Swift even know you exist
Do the initials you've carved into your heart
Until it's half dead from scarring
Like a tree marked by lovers' claims
Staked
Until you can scarcely see the bark
Make you feel truly a part of something
Greater than yourself
Or do you still feel
Small
Ordinary
As if there were not
An entire universe inside of you.

Note: I've come back and edited/rewritten parts of this poem since the first writing, so it isn't truly freewrite anymore. Here is the original 5 minute freewrite version, unedited:

Team Spirit

Branded
Owned
Where do you belong?
What is your place?
Nike/Adidas
Facebook/Twitter
Coke/Sprite
Do those $100 jeans
Give you a sense of purpose
Of belonging
Do the Broncos love you
Does Taylor Swift even know you exist
Do the initials you've carved into your heart
Until it's half dead from scarring
Like a tree marked by lovers' claims
Staked
Until you can scarcely see the bark
Make you feel truly a part of something
Greater than yourself
Or do you still feel
Small
Ordinary
As if there were not
An entire universe inside of you.

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