Writing Prompt #183 “Collage 32” – Inner Child

Posted on October 23, 2016 by Michael

collage-32

It was a song about a rainbow that held your interest

And the amazed look on your face when I sang it to you

Across the great divide we reached into each others hearts

Exploring ever exploring, learning to love again.

 

We debated what to bring, what to leave,

The material possessions we had held onto so long

No longer needed, not in a different world

Where old selves could let go to embrace new personas.

 

You sent me images of favourite flowers,

The books you favoured adorning your sitting room

The clothes off your back you were to sacrifice

To take on the garb of a new world.

 

Finally it was the girl in you I most enamoured to

The way you made me smile with the magic of your laughter

Caught in a time warp, a time when love was carefree

We rejoiced the inner child within us was alive and well.

 

Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2016/10/23/writing-prompt-183-collage-32/

Posted in Poetry, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 19 Comments

Thursday photo prompt – Violet sky #writephoto

Posted on October 21, 2016 by Michael

dark-dawn

The sunset suggested a hot day tomorrow. We dreaded it as the search had taken its toll already with several searchers overcome in the heat of the day.

So we gathered for our now familiar evening briefings. So far there had been scant findings in terms of where the family had disappeared to.

The outback is a huge place and so much of it looks like the last bit you searched. Hot, dry, rocky and unfriendly.

On the fourth day we found their car parked under an old spinifex tree the only shade as such for a long way. But no bodies were there. So we knew they had done the one thing we all knew you shouldn’t do. Leave your car and try to make it on foot. Usually because you don’t know how far help is and many people perished thinking they could walk to the nearest help.

Tomorrow it was planned to widen the search and I would take the track to the south in the unlikely event they had an idea to walk in that direction. So laden with extra water, radio and GPS I set out. By now the search team had dwindled and I was on my own as it was felt it was unlikely the family would have gone in a southerly direction.

An hour into my trek I found a doll, then a shoe belonging to a child. I radioed in my findings and soon the team were with me.

A flash of light away on the horizon was our beacon to hone onto.

We headed towards the light, hoping that despite their recklessness in leaving their car they knew the best way to survive was by flashing a mirror into the sun as the reflection would go beyond the horizon.

 

A week later I received a note from the father saying his thanks and gratitude for us finding him and his family, very sunburnt but alive.

 

 

Written for: https://scvincent.com/2016/10/20/thursday-photo-prompt-violet-sky-writephoto/

Posted in Uncategorized, Writing prompt | Tagged , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Microfiction challenge #19: The Proposal

Posted on October 21, 2016 by Michael

sjoekungens_drottning_by_john_bauer_1911

Image: John Bauer

“I’ve thought of ways to honour you. Though nothing is ever adequate.”

The boy looked at his girl and said those words. He felt humbled in her presence knowing the pain she had endured and the pain of living.

Both had grown apart from feelings of love and affection. They accepted as they aged that this was their lot in life, to grow old and tolerate their own loneliness.

By chance and random words, they had meet. Within each of them their hearts pounded with expectation. Their immediate focus on each other.

The boy felt the old feelings return, as if instantaneous. He remembered the story of the boy loving a girl. The girl remembered too and her heart swelled wanting so much to love and be loved.

They nurtured their love over the following weeks cementing feelings, desires, wants and needs.

One day the boy looked at his girl and told her he wanted her to be with him always and would she consider his proposal of marriage. He humbled himself before her, telling her all he had to give her was himself. He would give her all he had, shower her with flowers and whatever else their world provided them.

It was when faced with the boy and his proposal that she took his hand and told him she would marry him in a heartbeat and all she needed from him, was him.

 

Written for: https://janedougherty.wordpress.com/2016/10/21/microfiction-challenge-19-under-the-sea/

Posted in Uncategorized, Writing prompt | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Music Prompt #65 Michael Jackson “Thriller”

Posted on October 21, 2016 by Michael

mj-thriller-image

It was, I’m sure after midnight

The wind blew out of control

The old corrugated iron fence

Long neglected and rusted through

Rattled and crashed in a way

Suggested there may not be a tomorrow.

I woke with start, not from the rattling of the fence

But the creaking of the floorboards.

I was sure I was home alone.

I slunk down under my sheets

Hoping whatever made the sound was passing through

Sure to move next door, but then it didn’t

It walked back, hesitated

Dragged something heavy across the floor

Cursed as a toe was stubbed. Shit!

From under the covers I poked my head

A little at first as the voices grew

“I thought you knew what you were doing?”

‘I do, I didn’t anticipate this anvil lying here.”

“What’s an anvil doing there anyway?”

“Door stop.”

“Thrilling isn’t it.”

“Shut up!”

“Give us a hand.”

“Like this?”

“Yes!”

“Push!”

“Pull!”

“That’s it, easy peasey.”

“Now what?”

“Make sure he’s still asleep.”

“Well?”

“Yep, head buried under his covers.”

“Good!”

“Let’s go.”

“Righto.”

There followed a clanking and clanging to wake the dead

As they exited my house, with what I didn’t know.

I was by now a trembling mess

Sweat poured from every orifice

Too frightened to look,

Too scared to think.

I was frozen in my bed,

Burning up with fear.

I waited an hour, the house was still

I needed something probably a pill

Do I? Don’t I? Will I? Won’t I?

When I did everything was as it was the night before

The anvil where it should be

My jewels where they……what the?

Outside the old fence played its familiar tune.

 

Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2016/10/21/music-prompt-65-michael-jackson-thrillerhalloween-special/

Posted in Poetry, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Tale Weaver #90 : Ransom October 20, 2016 – Treasured Heirloom

Posted on October 20, 2016 by Michael

img_20160919_110713540

Weave a tale around this abduction: What was taken? What is the ransom price: money; possessions; skills/talents?; Will you obey orders, or bring in the cops/friends/PI?; Will you go renegade to retrieve it yourself?

It was mystery to me. Great grandfather’s clock was taken, gone, missing and in its place the note.

 

WE KnOW You wIlL MIsS this heIrloOm

know cULLinG THE coPs

WeLL beE In TOUch…

 

Several things sprang to mind. Who? How? And why the bad spelling?

Immediately a suspect sprang to mind. Murcus McGurk. A cold-blooded abductor if ever you saw one.

Last spring he had stolen the shirt off my back as I dozed under the mulberry tree in the back yard. A dastardly character to be sure.

McGurk lived across the way from me, was unemployed, poorly educated, though that was his fault not the school he allegedly attended for he didn’t attend very often.

He lived a squalid life, in a squalid house with a squalid woman oddly named Glorious.

She was a poor miserable soul; she had to be to find Murcus attractive in any way. Mostly you never saw her as she was very much a recluse but she had a thing for clocks and I know she secretly coveted my old clock.

Her house was a clock house, the noise of ticking clocks would have driven me mad, as it was the old clock I had no longer worked as when it did the thing would chime every fifteen minutes and at 2am that was welcomed by me in particular.

But Murcus and Glorious lived in blissful happiness in a house that would have driven most crazy.

One thing that the McGurk’s disliked was visitors. Especially a visitor aiming to blame them for something they would no doubt deny. I was thinking of a strategy when another note appeared under the front door.

 

ThE CLoCk is SaFE

nO hArm wIll CuM tWo it

We LoVE cLoCks

And It IsNt US mcGurKS what

piNCHEd IT

ransom

note

COMiNG

 

My suspicions were now confirmed the dumbest criminal minds were involved here.

I rang the cops who eventually turned up and after a coffee or two agreed to front the McGurks.

Murcus sensing his time was running out sent a final note:

 

PAY us $5000 or the cLOCk

Gets IT.

Money in a bROWN PaPer baG

DrOP it OVER thE BaCK fenCE

Go INSide And No LOOKIng.

COUnt To 20, 30 No 50 Before LookiNG….

ClOCK will BE at Back door.

tHaNks murCUS anD glorious

 

Needles to say, the cops raided the McGurk’s and rescued my clock. As they carted Murcus and Glorious away they were heard arguing:

Murcus: I told you not to make so many spelling mistakes.

Glorious: I didn’t that was your idea.

Murcus: How do you think they got onto us?

Glorious: You idiot, you could have thought of a better drop off spot than the back fence, he’s always spying on us over the fence.

Murcus: And I had all that money in my hand.

Glorious: And Hawaii looked a real possibility…

And so they argued as they were driven away, my clock returned and my monopoly money returned to his box.

img_06151

 

Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2016/10/20/tale-weaver-90-ransom/

Posted in Uncategorized, Writing prompt | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Photo Challenge #135 – Drifting

Posted on October 18, 2016 by Michael

creative-wedding-photography-2014-ispwp-contest-thumb640

Image: Demilked.com

It all started with an image, a boat adrift,

Then as it drew closer I saw

A boy and a girl,

Drifting, chatting, focused on each other

The girl decorating, blowing bubbles

Festooning the boat with balloons.

She sang softly to him as they paddled by

Oblivious to all around,

Her song so beautiful I saw tears in the boy’s eyes.

In the centre of the pond they stopped

She took his hand and whispered in his ear,

She lay him down in the boat and caressed and loved him

There they stayed, their time was theirs

So precious, so treasured.

He emerged smiling, took up the oars

Once again they floated with the stream

She popping the balloons as they slipped away

Their focus on one another.

And so as they rounded the bend

I speculated on what occurred there.

 

Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2016/10/18/photo-challenge-135/

Posted in Poetry, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 19 Comments

Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers – Carl and Rover

Posted on October 18, 2016 by Michael

photo-20161016082435199

Image: The Storyteller Abode_ Thanks Louise

Carl loved taking his master for a walk. It wasn’t hard to get him motivated. A good solid wag of the tail, a wistful look and a movement toward the front door and the master whom he called Rover was organised.

Carl was always attentive to Rover’s needs and made sure that Rover was always pottied before they left home.

On their walks Carl loved the park. He admired the flowers and the trees rich in blossom. His favourite potty place was just beyond the acacia tree with its bright red blooms. Carl enjoyed sniffling out the right spot to crouch and do his stuff.  All the time Rover looked on patiently, Carl surmising he was thinking about his own potty needs.

Today being sunny, Carl was hoping to see Milly the dachshund who walked her mistress, Spot, in the same park and Carl could feel his nose softening once again for her.

 

Written for: https://flashfictionforaspiringwriters.wordpress.com/2016/10/17/fffaw-challenge-week-of-october-18-2016/

Posted in Uncategorized, Writing prompt | Tagged , , , , | 24 Comments

Wordle #125 “October 17th, 2016” – Ronald Puke

Posted on October 18, 2016 by Michael

week-125

This week’s words: Precise Uniform Delirious  Forge Denote Ration Pneumatic (Of or relating to air, gases, or wind. Operated by air or by the pressure or exhaustion of air: a pneumatic drill. Filled with or containing compressed air, as a tire.  Theology. of or relating to the spirit; spiritual. Zoology. containing air or air cavities.) Shudder  Torchwood (Any of various resinous woods suitable for making torches, as the wood of the tree Amyris balsamifera, of the rue family, native to Florida and the West Indies. Any of the trees yielding these woods. Refer to Wikipedia for fictional fodder https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torchwoodhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torchwood) Terrible Skulk Lavation (Noun. The process of washing)

Ronald Puke hated having a birthday. The damn thing rolled around every year on October 18 and he dreaded it each time. Most days he would skulk around his house shuddering each time the phone rang thinking it was another well-wisher and he’d have to sound grateful he was another year older.

It was a terrible day for Ronald so he would spend the morning in his lavatory, then into the shower to lave himself within an inch of his life. Lavation was a wonderful distraction from the pressures of life like answering the phone and sounding cheerful.

Not that Ronald was not a cheerful person but he was more your ration it out sort of guy. Never known of moments of delirious cheerfulness he was more your measured cheerful sort who could forge a friendship or not depending on his mood at the time.

It would be fair to say that Ronald denoted a benchmark in the scheme of cheerfulness and today was not one of his better days. If you were to see him tapping away on his computer you’d be forgiven for thinking there was something pneumatic about Ronald and his person habits. One of the benefits he thought of living alone was he could exercise the pneumatic features of his body with impunity. He had a big body, a body that responded well to the gaseous substances permeating it and who found the need to escape whenever and wherever possible more desirous that staying. It is true his pneumatic abilities could have driven an electric generator but people were tolerant of his need to expel and expand.

On Sunday’s Ronald donned the uniform of the only organisation that afforded him some joy.

The Torchwood society. A loose amalgamation of like-minded wood working folk who went forth into the forests in all weather, from the terrible to the terrifying to gather the logs needed to fashion what they deemed was needed in their closed workshops. Ronald didn’t like much the gathering of the torchwood but he did love the precision needed to fashion furniture from this desirous timber.

It was the only day in the week when he didn’t skulk, shudder or pneumatic uncontrollably.He wished his birthday was on a Torchwood day, then he’d feel a tad better about a birthday, he was sure of that.

 

Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2016/10/17/wordle-125-october-17th-2016/

 

Posted in Uncategorized, Writing prompt | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

Writing Prompt, October 16th, 2016:Gifts from Mr. Sandman

Posted on October 16, 2016 by Michael

sandman_by_grimhel-d5pufz4

He comes when I least suspect, in my dreams and then not always I the same form.

My dreams are haphazard; I recall only snippets unless it’s one of those rare ones I have when things are particularly bad in my life.

Like when my marriage ended I had a series of dreams about wading against the flow, it was all in an effort to reach a place that was going to be safe and more prosperous than where I’d come from.

But the sandman as he is called does visit and can take me to weird places, often to do with schools. Places I vaguely recall, situations I don’t recall, people I might have known and always an effort is required to extract myself from the maze I find myself in.

The other night I had the weirdest one though. A friend had a dog and bought it to my house. It was a lovely dog except it had happy tail syndrome. I couldn’t see the issue with it but my friend was convinced the dogs tail had to come off.

So then a chase began, me trying to save the dog, whose tail wagged like a madman through the ordeal where we escaped over hill and dale, hid in dark places but always my friend was pursuing us saying it was ok, the dog wouldn’t feel a thing when they lopped it off and it would be better off without it anyway. In my mind was the tail is there for a reason, so I led the dog, the dog led me, we made best of flight to a freedom that seemed doomed as I couldn’t shake off my pursuer. Then as so often in my dreams we came to a loose stone hill and the climb up was futile as we kept sliding down the hill, so we’d try again and again and all the while my pursuer was on our heels sliding down when we did and then to my relief I woke up.

I lay there a while recovering, still in shock at the pursuit and also at the indignity of the dog with happy tail being the subject of a cruelty I was convinced was unnecessary.

Needless to say I did look up ‘happy tail’ and it is a syndrome for some dogs that can end in amputation if the dog continues to smile too much and do itself continued injury!!

 

Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2016/10/16/writing-prompt-october-16th-2016gifts-from-mr-sandman/

Posted in Uncategorized, Writing prompt | Tagged , , , , , | 12 Comments

Microfiction challenge #18: Lost

Posted on October 15, 2016 by Michael

andreassen_olav_johan_stormnatten_olje_pacc8a_lerret

Image: Andreassen, Olav Johan, Stormnatten, olje på lerret.jpg

How did a perfectly normal and peaceful Sunday afternoon at the beach turn into a near tragedy beyond comprehension.

The family had come for the day, a trip from the country taking them several hours meaning they had begun early and with the excitement of the ocean, the waves, the warmth and the opportunity to forget the troubles at home with crop failures and a never ending drought, they looked forward to this day of escape.

The children delighted in the ocean waves, played and splashed in the shore break. The father had decided to venture further out and they all watched in amazement as he swam strongly through the swell and made it out beyond the break.

Then he was gone. At first they thought he had dived under and was swimming underwater. When he didn’t surface they called to their mother who busy with the baby had not been watching. She ran to their side and stood with them wishing for him to reappear and take away their anxiety.

She called for help, ran back and forward to the life guards getting the children to describe where he was last seen. Quickly life guards were in the water and out to where the father had disappeared.

Within seconds they had him and rolling him over on his back began the long swim back to the shore. The family felt it was an eternity and ran into the water to see if their father was alive.

They lay him on the sand and CPR was begun. Suddenly he was rolled on his side, coughed up a lung full of water and was back with them.

Around him his wife cried, the children were numb with the experience not knowing what feelings to exhibit.

On the sand the father breathed again.

 

Written for: https://janedougherty.wordpress.com/2016/10/14/microfiction-challenge-18-lost/

 

 

Posted in Uncategorized, Writing prompt | Tagged , , , , , | 15 Comments