#Maydays Prompt – Skeletons in the Closet – Great Uncle Bill

Posted on May 3, 2016 by Michael

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#maydays prompt its time for that age old family discussion of skeletons in the closet.

Mum screamed we all came running

There at her feet lay Great Uncle Bill.

At least the skeleton she explained

Was all that remained of Great Uncle Bill.

He was a philanderer we all knew that

A legend and myth within our family.

Bill had sailed the seven seas

A girl in every port they said

A larrikin and playboy all in one.

He died when on the run

Found shelter with his one great love

His wife, the forgiving Great Aunt May.

She said he’d gone out fishing

And never saw him again

Despite looking high and low

Not a trace was found, not one clue.

But now mum feared it would all come out

We had a skeleton in our closet,

Behind the ironing board in a hidey-hole.

At least said dad as he surveyed the mess

The tangle of bones and an old striped shirt,

We can now lay, great uncle to rest.

 

Written for: https://new2writing.wordpress.com/2016/05/03/maydays-prompt-skeletons-in-the-closet/

Posted in Poetry, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 12 Comments

Photo Challenge #111 – Doors

Posted on May 3, 2016 by Michael

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Image: Anna O. Photography

You turned out such a bitch

What started as a love made in heaven

You turned into a hellish journey.

For so long I thought we were fine

We had differences, who doesn’t?

We played as never before

We talked long into the night

Couldn’t get enough of each other.

You saw me as a man with potential.

You bent and twisted me

My own introspection destroying me.

Telling me what to look for

Stupidly I complied

Long hours of fruitless thought

Fear motivated, I penned words

Meaningless platitudes

As you crushed the life out of me.

I reached a dead end

Trapped and defenseless

As you ripped out my soul.

Desperation = preservation

I shut one door,

Opened another.

Here welcome, love and acceptance abounds.

 

Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2016/05/03/photo-challenge-111/

 

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FFfAW – Week of 05-03-2016 – Spring Awakening

Posted on May 2, 2016 by Michael

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Image: by momtheobscure

 

It was the annual spring awakening day at Slave Rock. It had its pagan origins and no one was quite sure when the sculpture was done but it was a landmark you never ceased to marvel at.

Each spring on the first Sunday in May people would gather from all over the country and some even made the journey across the seas to be there for the occasion.

There was a ritual of events, the chanting of ancient mantras to welcome the spring, wishing all in attendance a healthy year, the spreading of flower petals and the parade to the giant Slave Rock where all would gather at the base while on top the festival president would stand upon the shoulders of the giant slave and give the order all were waiting for.

When it came it was greeted with cries of joy and exclamation as we all dropped our clothes on the beach and leapt naked into the waves.

 

Written for: https://flashfictionforaspiringwriters.wordpress.com/2016/05/02/fffaw-week-of-05-03-2016/

Posted in Uncategorized, Writing prompt | Tagged , , , , | 40 Comments

#Maydays Prompt – Odds are on – The Last Bread Basket

Posted on May 2, 2016 by Michael

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Today’s #maydays prompt how about a bit of competition.

I’m in the supermarket minding my own business

My son sits in the trolley counting jellybeans.

My archenemy Roger Bent comes up beside me

His young son Snotface I call him sits in front.

The kids know of our rivalry

It begins innocently

I nod towards Roger in recognition

I see Roger whisper to Snotface

Snotface says; “My dad is better than your dad.”

My son quick to defend his dad says: “No.”

A boy of few words my son.

There’s a special today on Breadbaskets

Roger tells Snotface to keep look out

At the end of the aisle I spy them

Suddenly it’s a sprint to the finish

Our trolleys clash several times

Our sons are thrown about

They scream in terror one moment delight the next

A solitary breadbasket awaits us

It’s neck and neck

I put out a foot

Roger trips and falls

“Oh dear how sad,” I think.

The last breadbasket is mine

I covet it as I wander back past the defeated Roger

Snotface is furious; he is now more snotfaced than ever.

I grab a box of tissues; drop them into their trolley

High five my son as we in triumph depart.

Later I wonder what the hell I’ll do

With the victorious breadbasket.

 

Written for: https://new2writing.wordpress.com/2016/05/02/maydays-prompt-odds-are-on/

Posted in Poetry, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 17 Comments

Wordle #107 “May 2nd, 2016” – Greasy Barr

Posted on May 2, 2016 by Michael

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This week’s great words: Greasy Entice Cryptic Marrowbone Collision Lead Edge Hole Kuebiko (n. a state of exhaustion inspired by acts of senseless violence, which force you to revise your image of what can happen in this world—mending the fences of your expectations, weeding out all unwelcome and invasive truths, cultivating the perennial good that’s buried under the surface, and propping yourself up like an old scarecrow, who’s bursting at the seams but powerless to do anything but stand there and watch.) Yellow Crooked Vitriol (Chemistry: any of certain metallic sulfates of glassy appearance, as copper sulfate or blue vitriol, iron sulfate or green vitriol, zinc sulfate orwhite vitriol, etc. contempt, sarcasm, venom, hatefulness, criticism)

 

When Greasy Barr was involved a bad collision as a kid it did something weird to his psyche. By the time he was fourteen he had established the towns only Kuebiko club. Admittedly it had a membership of one but Greasy had a uniform made complete with logos and a club song. His song,  much like the goings on within the Kuebiko Club was an act of senseless musical violence. Sung badly, always out of tune and at the top of his lungs we always knew when Greasy was on the lookout for some victim or object to practice his art of senseless violence on.

He was very good at enticing you into some situation, which in evidently lead to you ending up in a hole. Once you were in he would peer over the edge and announce some form of punishment for some crime you never committed. One time he announced to Foxy Dawes that he was going to pour yellow paint over him and he did.

The vitriol that poured from Foxy’s mouth was anything but cryptic announcing in no uncertain terms that he would take Greasy apart limb by limb and suck out the marrowbone from his bones and spit it into the dirt.

It wasn’t that Greasy was crooked in any way, his brain had been interfered with and often he had no idea what he was doing as when questioned afterwards he would stare blankly at his accusers unaware of the crime he had committed.

In the end it was decided to dismantle the Kuebiko Club, fill in all of the holes he had dug and put him into a hole all of his own.

Greasy is happy there, in a very cryptic sort of way.

 

Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2016/05/02/wordle-107-april-25th-2016/

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Check This Out

Posted on May 1, 2016 by Michael

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Today  the Newcastle(Australia) Herald published a story about my son’s recent art work.

If you follow the link below and then watch the video you will be as amazed as I am by what he has done.

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/3880758/secret-city-pool-to-make-a-splash/?cs=305

Posted in Art, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 33 Comments

Writing Prompt #157 “Collage 22” – Wistful Girl

Posted on May 1, 2016 by Michael

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Wistful girl

Lies in her bed

Thoughts a million miles away.

She sees him standing there

Lingering in the distance.

She knows him so well

Welcomes him in her every day.

For a second she remembers his touch

Her impish love excites as never before.

The flowers he sent,

She pressed into the pages of a favourite text.

It’s well worn and rough around the edges,

Dog eared from affection and age.

She fingers the pressings

Remembering the moments when hands brushed

As shadows passing in the night.

She breaths him in

His scent lingers seductively:

She takes her thoughts of him

And her wistfulness plays a sought after tune.

 

Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2016/05/01/writing-prompt-157-collage-22/

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#Maydays Prompt – Lessons learnt – Senior English

Posted on May 1, 2016 by Michael

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Today’s theme is about learning and teaching.

My students sit up when I enter

I think to see what I am wearing

Rather than the teaching about to take place.

English in the senior years,

Jane Austen, Shakespeare,

The Romantics, Keats and his Grecian Urn.

Their eyes glaze over, here we go again

Flogging a dead horse, so to speak.

Minds switched off, pens doodling

I make all the sense I can

My mind struggling with Austen as much as theirs.

Then the crunch part, the word Assessment

Their eyes light up, some salivate, others sigh.

When?

Where?

Marks?

Question?

They demand the lesson notes,

Want study sheets

Guidance suddenly is requested

Marks are involved,

They get very serious

Heads down bums up

Diligence surfaces

Indifference vanishes.

 

Written for: https://new2writing.wordpress.com/2016/05/01/maydays-prompt-lessons-learnt/

Posted in Poetry, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 16 Comments

SoCS April 30/16 – zoo

Posted on April 29, 2016 by Michael

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You’ll have the best day

At the Western Plains Zoo.

A free-range zoo, set amid acres of Australian bush.

Here you can walk from one place to the next,

Cycle or take a guided tour,

With no Hughesian* concrete and wire cities

Housing animals in depressing cement enclosures.

Instead the animals laze in as close a natural habitat

As can be provided in this harsh brown land.

Their state of mind is best described by the languid way they

Lay about without a care in the world until the next feed time.

The visitor’s challenge is always to find them

Disguised so often among the vegetation.

It’s a lovely day, a zoo to visit

One you’ll be happy to return to.
 

* http://genius.com/Ted-hughes-the-jaguar-annotated

Written for: https://lindaghill.com/2016/04/29/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-april-3016/

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2016 April PAD Challenge: Day 29 – Haphazard

Posted on April 29, 2016 by Michael

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Write a haphazard poem

Random words upon a page

Was how my blog life started

And nothing much has changed.

I love the random order of things

I enjoy playing with words

Shaping them in logical sequences

Just because I can….

It wasn’t always easy

I do struggle from time to time.

I try to write often enough

Such that after a while

The words line up

Begging me to write them down.

I often see a task as a puzzle

A literary maths problem

That I apply with diligent

Trial and error

In order to achieve a result

A little like this haphazard collection

Of words and thoughts.

 

Written for: http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/2016-april-pad-challenge-day-29

Posted in Poetry, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments