#Maydays Prompt – Space Walk – Step Back

Posted on May 12, 2016 by Michael

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‘Step back,’ she cries

‘You’re crowding me

I need room to breathe.’

She stands against the wall

Her eyes focused on me.

I see the sense of desperation in her

Her need to keep me at bay,

As maybe I have been too much of late.

Space is what I can provide

I step back, reluctantly,

I love being in her presence.

She makes me feel good in myself.

I don’t like that she hurts of my actions.

The space she requires is time away

A place where she can be herself.

Somewhere she can think alone

And not be influenced by my needs.

I retreat hurt and wounded

By the call to move away.

‘How long?’ I ask.

“Till I feel strong again,’ she says.

‘Do you want me to stay in touch?’

‘No. I’ll call you when I’m ready.’

‘You will?’

‘Yes, I will.’

 

Written for: https://new2writing.wordpress.com/2016/05/12/maydays-prompt-space-walk/

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Tale Weaver #65 – The Old House

Posted on May 12, 2016 by Michael

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The old house has been at 39 Gortage Street, a long time. It has had many owners over the years and has not remained in anyone’s family for long.

There was something about the house that put people off staying very long.

It could have been the strange noises heard at night. It could have been the paint peeling from the walls for no apparent reason. Or it could have been that inside it tended to change it’s dimensions.

You see you could go to bed at night in your bedroom and awaken the next morning in the garden, in your bed and never once feel any movement.

It did cause some anxiety that such things happened, one night Mr Cassidy fell asleep in the bath to awaken hours later still in the bath but the bath was now in the kitchen much to the horror of his Aunt Alice the most straight laced and conservative woman known to man.

Needless to say Mr Cassidy moved out the next day his Aunt Alice never spoke to him again calling him a degenerate pervert and spread the rumour successfully around the family.

It was an intriguing situation for the house as well. In its head the space it occupied was its and therefore it would decide to change shape as often as it wanted to. So often it was dependent on the occupants at the time. The house considered them as guests and as such it decided their fate if a fate was required.

Most people were tolerable it decided and therefore it was happy for them to stay until it got bored of them and altered a few things to urge them to move out. It was the pretentious ones it most despised. The woman who came in wanting to change this and alter that, knock a wall out here and put a wall in there and of all things put in an ensuite.

You can imagine the homeowner’s dilemma when after engaging builders to bring about the changes they planned to knock out a wall only to find the wall back in place the next morning. Or the coat of paint you laboriously applied all day has peeled off overnight and lies in neatly folded piles on the floor. You hope a message was being successfully delivered and for the most part it was. Change was short lived unless the house so desired it.

So today the house sits on its small block of land. It looks scruffy, unloved, dishevelled and in serious need of love and attention. But just try and do anything to change its current appearance. Its discovered digital projection and what it can create, as a visual spectacle is something to behold and frighten the pants off you. The current owner, Silas Milas can’t offload it to any one. That’s the trouble with the computer age, a picture on Face Book is enough to damn it forever, which is ok in the house’s eyes as its content to sit and be what it is. A House!

 

Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2016/05/12/tale-weaver-65-the-old-house/

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Hump Day Poetry – Week 14 – Tedium

Posted on May 11, 2016 by Michael

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Why does lunchtime Wednesday

Alter my thoughts from work to the weekend?

I stay focused until that time.

I then wander into fantasyland

The weekend prospects of party

Of relaxing, of friends, of dinners.

By rights I should stay on task until Friday

Then allow my mind to meander through

Fields of fun, excitement and adventure.

Instead the humdrum, the back and forth

Of tedium rules my life.

Acquiring a piece of paper

After years of study saying qualified

Has me isolated in this cubicle

Shut off from the world

Surrounded by people who care not

If I like red or green.

It’s a dead, dull and boring

But it pays the rent,

Affords me a reasonable lifestyle

But is killing me inside.

 

Written for: https://ionanerissa.wordpress.com/2016/05/11/hump-day-poetry-week-14/

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#Maydays Prompt – Laughing all the way – Tommy’s One Joke

Posted on May 11, 2016 by Michael

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Today’s prompt – laughter

It was the annual “Wind ‘Em Up and Let Them Go” Festival and all the comedians in the town had gathered to try their luck and see what they could do about winning the grand prize, the coveted Foot in Mouth Trophy.

Tommy had gone along to try his luck on the premise that his mum was always telling him what a funny boy he was. He was a bag of nerves which in itself would have been a great gag had he realised it at the time.

It was soon his turn and out onto the stage he strode. This is what happened:

Tommy: ‘A horse walks into a bar and the barman says: Why the long face?’ Instantly there is raucous laughter around the room.

He goes on: ‘Because my family have just been killed in a nuclear explosion.’ People are by now rolling on the floor. Tommy thinks this is going well.

He tries again: ‘And our mum had just made us a batch of Mulligatawny soup.’ By now there is near chaos in the room, people are on the floor, crying tears of joy and back slapping each other.

Tommy stands there soaking it all up. The laughter dies down and he stands and bows to the audience. They are suddenly silent. They are all looking at Tommy waiting for his next joke.

Tommy doesn’t have another joke and so he bows and leaves the stage. There are howls of protest and the Master of Ceremonies pushes him back out onto the stage.

Tommy very embarrassed by all this looks around and then says: A horse walks into a bar and the barman says: Why the long face…once again the room descends into hysteria…..so Tommy keeps going……

 

Written for: https://new2writing.wordpress.com/2016/05/11/maydays-prompt-laughing-all-the-way/

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Poetics: Open a new door with me – The Door To Tomorrow

Posted on May 11, 2016 by Michael

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Today’s Poetics, let’s write a poem that reflects the idea of doors.

I hear the knocking

It’s from so far away.

I want to get there

Open it wide

Invite you in,

But right now the door

Weighs heavily on its hinges.

The locks are in place

But I know there is a key.

I turn it slowly, it gives a little

The door creaks

Under apprehension and pressure.

It’s a laborious process

Opening against a lifetime of rust

Letting in not just tomorrow

But you, the light of my life.

 

Written for: https://dversepoets.com/2016/05/10/poetics-open-a-new-door-with-me/

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#Maydays Prompt – A Little Lost

Posted on May 10, 2016 by Michael

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Today’s #maydays prompt may your character lose something, their phone, their marbles, their sheep?

 

Moving house can be not only tiring but also stressful as all you are focused on is getting the job done as quickly as possible.

So it was a surprise to wake up in our new house and discover we had two Jack Russels in our back yard. My daughter had one called Nutella but like all our pets her name had been shortened to Nutsy.

Beside her in the backyard was another little dog that wasn’t in any way like Nutsy. This little dog was shaking, it was underfed and it was sharing Nutsy’s bowl.

We had no idea as to when it had come from or to whom it belonged. Obviously it had come into the yard when the gates were open during the move the previous day.

It showed no interest in leaving the yard and so it was adopted and named Lost. It did in time provide Nutsy with a playmate and they did get along fine. Sadly Lost was not overly friendly and was for the length of his life a scrawny little dog that cowered from you if you went too close.

We never discovered his true owners, never had anyone knock on the door looking for him so he stayed with us and became part of our pet family.

 

Written for: https://new2writing.wordpress.com/2016/05/10/maydays-prompt-a-little-lost/

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FFfAW – Week of 05-10-2016 – Art Installation

Posted on May 10, 2016 by Michael

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This week’s photo prompt is provided by S. Writings.

 

The art class stood back surveying their latest creation. A vehicular representation of the world they lived in.

They were very proud of their work considering most of the teachers in the school had written them off as worthless, thick and not interested in anything to do with learning.

Each student was particularly proud of the effort he/she made. Ronny, Bonny, Connie and Sonny had planned and worked tirelessly on the project. It took the best part of an entire day and after they completed their respective sections the whole vehicle was polished and now it shone brilliantly in the sun. The car looked sensational and they hoped the School Principal would see the educational merit in converting his car to a more than fascinating art installation.


Written for: https://flashfictionforaspiringwriters.wordpress.com/2016/05/09/fffaw-week-of-05-10-2016/

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Haibun Monday #13 – Walking

Posted on May 10, 2016 by Michael

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Today’s task to write a compact (not more than three paragraphs) haibun inspired by the concept of walking.

Outside this morning it is windy, the first strong winds of the season. We are heading out of autumn and towards winter and I feel the chill in the air as the temperatures begin to reflect the season. Either way it is the most pleasant time to be walking.

It’s not so cold as to be rugged up just yet and by the time I reach the top of the first hill I am feeling my body warm up and small beads of perspiration form along my upper lip. My puffing slightly, more from a lack of fitness than anything else.

Walking in this weather along old familiar paths is somewhat hard this morning. My feet are acting up, complaining, suggesting I go home get off them. Old age sucks I know that and soon surgery will help alleviate the discomfort. But on a beautiful cool breezy morning there is no better place than outside one foot in front of the other making my way there and back.

 

buffeting winds

winter approaches at last

refreshing my soul

 

 

Written for: https://dversepoets.com/2016/05/09/haibun-monday-13-walking/

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#Maydays Prompt – Books

Posted on May 9, 2016 by Michael

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Today’s #maydays prompt – books.

They sit upon my shelves

Repositories of knowledge

Escapes into fantasy

Rollicking tales of adventure

Calming tomes of meditation.

They are part of my life

From childhood I buried myself

Inside the words of great authors

Sailed the seas, visited new and exotic places

Fell in love with heroines

And dreamed of emulating heroes.

There are factual tales

Tales of the imagination

Written to entice and enthral.

Harry Potter sits along side Douglas Adams

With Fawkner, Keats and Poe

Holding their own against

The modern young and prolific scribes

Who delight and sometimes disappoint

But always intrigue and fascinate.

My love of magic, fact and absurdity

Sit comfortably hand in hand.

 

Written for: https://new2writing.wordpress.com/2016/05/09/maydays-prompt-books/

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Wordle #108 “May 9th, 2016” – The Genie

Posted on May 9, 2016 by Michael

This weeks words: Genie Wear Flask Bleed Amethyst Crease Sidereal (determined by or from the stars, relating to the stars) Duration Rubatosis (n. the unsettling awareness of your own heartbeat, whose tenuous muscular throbbing feels less like a metronome than a nervous ditty your heart is tapping to itself, the kind that people compulsively hum or sing while walking in complete darkness, as if to casually remind the outside world, I’m here, I’m here, I’m here.) Drawback Furious Wish 

 

I wish I wish I wish, the lamp was old it was a possibility when you think I lived most of my life in fantasyland.

There was a swoosh and a puff of smoke and there in front of me was the genie. It looked the most bored genie you could imagine. Nothing like the one I grew up with on television.

She was considerably dishevelled and quite irritated. In fact it appeared I had upset her afternoon soap opera viewing and so was more furious than irritated. She was wearing dungarees and a bush hat, a cigarette hanging from one side of her mouth and in her hand a small flask of what I assumed was some sort of alcohol, as she did appear a little tipsy.

She looked at me and I at her. I had that sudden feeling of rubatosis as I was uncertain as to what she was going to say or do. My heart was pounding, the rubatosis was getting worse as it had in the few seconds that had passed gone from a slow waltz to a more hip hop beat.

On her finger she wore an amethyst ring of astronomical proportions its purple sheen complementing her purple dungarees.

It can’t be easy being a genie and being at the beck and call of anyone who rubbed you anyway let alone the wrong way. There are drawbacks with any occupation and it couldn’t have been easy for this genie who looked for the most part as if she was sidereal or as my mum would say, off with the stars.

She tapped her foot impatiently for the duration it took me to think of three wishes during which the creases in her face deepened with her own anxiety as I knew she was thinking of being other places that right here.

Her final words after I had stated my wishes was to sarcastically remark that her heart bled for me before disappearing in a cloud of smoke back into the lamp.

 

Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2016/05/09/wordle-108-may-9th-2016/

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