Weekly Short Stories Contest and Company! discussion

Worms who had eaten
through his coffin approached him
with fear and loathing,

wondering why he
had been shoved off in curlers
and women’s clothing.

Good one, Alex! I didn’t follow it very well. I’ll try to do better next time.

Diligently, the
worms tunneled up his snout, then
began cavorting,

high on what he’d been
snorting to ease his troubles
when the lights went out.

The worms dug deep
and deeply they dug
but soon were bitten by a bug!

Is that right? Or did I do it wrong?

OK thanks.

I’ll follow yours, Christa.

“Oh, no!” they quavered,
and, “Where’s the light?” They feared it
was a hellgrammite.

“Don’t say something id-
iotic,” snapped one. “Those lar-
vae are aquatic.”

I'll try again

Aquatic indeed
but you never need fear for them
their teeth don't bit deep

Excellent, Christa!


To be fish-nibbled
Is to be tickled on scale
With a snake boa.

No one loves to play with words as much as Guy does! Interesting, many-faceted haiku, Guy, and difficult to follow.

Like poor Jonah, and
like old Noah, by the un-
dertaker pickled,

they wrapped him in a
feather boa, but he was
past being tickled.

He was gulped like booze
Big fish- only existed
to swallow Jonah.

Thanks, M (I think!) LoL. English is so playful I can't help myself. Okay, that seems lame, describing myself as a victim of English! LoL.

And yours are equally multi-faceted and oh so cleverly funny. This was excellent and had me on the floor laughing.

His boss was naive
And ate up Jonah's white lies
Like roe on crackers.

Crackers, he stared. . . hmm
Golden color- "slow" man thought,
"Why was I called this. . .?"

He'll never know . . . :P

Jonah, still dripping
with sea moss, wanly smiled. “Hey,
Old Testament Boss!

It was hellish. I
won’t embellish. I wonder
if I’ll have hair loss.”

LoL. M, the imagery in this spot on! Not good, but here goes.

'It's all in the hair,'
declared Jonah to his whale,
'although it's not there.'

The man rubbed his head
Wanting to be dead, aware
Of Yahweh instead.

It never pays to
say, “Never again.” Jonah
thought his troubles done,

laughing with the long-
shoremen: “I’ve had it with whales!”
Then he married one.

Jonah tried to live
normal, so he took a house
The person opened

The door, said, "There's room."
He told, "This closet would work.
"But would be so cramped.

"You would tuck your legs
Arms at sides, uncomfortable."
Flashback. He said, "NO!"

LoL. M, again, so funny.

Nice one, CJ!

CJ, a very clever extension of the idea. Nice!

Guy, what would a glass pyramid stand for in Analytical Psychology?

Remember when he
crawled into a butcher's shop
and said, "I hear God"?

Remember when they
tied him up and put him through
the sausage machine?

And fed the whale with
his end bits, the ones that writhed
like belly dancers?

HELLO JESSICA! Huge hug (I hope you like being hugged!) So nice to see you again.

WOW! What a bizarre, fascinating, engaging and generally brilliant Haiku set! Loved it.

M, with analytical psychology, the meaning of things almost always depends on context. However, in general terms, the pyramid is a symbol of psychological completeness and wholeness. Glass, as in transparent glass, suggests that that completeness is not shut off from the (light) energy of life.

Why do you ask? Did you have a interesting dream, perhaps?

Al, was that because of the story you read? Your comment seemed particularly filled with the typos of some ready for bed. LoL.

Wow, Jessica!

Jonah groaned, a sick-
ly green. “It’s the last time I
ask God for answers.

Get fed to a sau-
sage machine, my end bits turned
to belly dancers.”

Guy, I’ve recently had a recurring dream about the living room of my parents’ house. The actual room is a large one, post-and-beam construction, and the rear wall is plate glass. In the dream, the room has become a glass pyramid. What it reminded me of, on waking, was the Rainforest Pyramid at Moody Gardens in Galveston. Bright daylight infuses it. But there’s a terrific explosion across the street, and the concussion causes the sheets of glass to break loose from their mountings and fall in on me.

M, this is a very interesting dream, made even more so by it being a recurring one. I'll take a poke at analysing it when I'm not at work.

Have you had any thoughts/intuitive nudges about possible meanings?

I’ve had several dreams about that house. It’s one of those sprawling, “open plan” houses that have a lot of glass and flowing space and were built before the insights of Modern architecture were forgotten and houses became dark and cavelike again.

Let me guess. The last thing Em said was, “Gotta dash!”

If we didn’t have faces, how did you know who we were?

That photo of me in the bar? Oh, those were carefree days!

Oh dear, anonymous me! I'm feeling tangibly less real by the moment. Surely I cannot be the quirkiest character around here?! At the very least M is - he writes poetry while doing laundry! Of course, there is also you, writing madly, doing ghoulish make-up experiments, and studying psychology. And that's not counting the popcorn thread, and that you take pleasure in the Haiku game thread.

Okay, now Al, was that really your dream? Forced to watch a Renaissance festival and listen to Guy talking economics? LoL! That really does sound like a nightmare!

Al wrote: "I had the weirdest dream last night."

Sorry to go off topic. Speaking of "weird dreams" or nightmares. . . I just saw the movie The Faculty on DVD. I finally got to buy it. . . a great Kevin Williamson script.

On this site, I'm gonna write a "sequel" just for fun!

Great idea, CJ! Go for it.

M, your haiku was again very funny, and a challenge to write against. Okay, here goes:

The zills of the chaste
Belly dancer were what thrilled
Jonah's wiggly bits.

He became the whale
And water danced to Gaga
With Moby and Dick.

Good night, Al. I've done with your other dream interpretation and will put into the mail - tomorrow! So as to NOT influence your dreams tonight.

It is odd being thought of / perceived to be 'quirky'. I'm not sure that that has happened to me before. Although I take it as a nice compliment to be linked to M in that way!

I’m about to drive down to the camper, but I’ll be back tonight!


Ever one to seize
an opportunity, a
one-upper, Jonah

went back to the sau-
sage factory, not for sup-
per, but to clone a

“Wiggly Bit,” as they
were styled when boxed up as pet
snacks: “They drive cats wild!”

Alex, I posted some more photos of me on my profile, but they’re old, except for the one where I’m fat. I’ve always hated having my picture taken.

M, thanks for the pics! Loved your sketches, too. Now I'm feeling a bit stingy in not putting up any images of my own. Hmmmmmm. Looks like I'll be putting something up in the next few days.

Thank you, Guy and Alex! You’re far too generous. When I was taking drawing classes, another student remarked that my drawing looked “decayed.” I’ve never forgotten that. Extraverted sensing is relatively dark for me, so the information that gets translated into graphite is incomplete and seems rotted out.

Fascinating description, and goes towards explaining why I like these kinds of sketches so much - my introverted nature gets to fill in the blanks and make it my own, so to speak.

The lines are not fully completed; so in M's sketches there are lots of broken lines and some of the features are not fully defined.

Have a good night's sleep, Al.

My wife is going through a stretch of sleeplessness. Sometimes what helps is to do the opposite of what you would expect when you lay down. Instead of laying down to try to fall asleep when you are tired, lay down with the clear intent to try and stay awake. No guarantee, but this suggestion has helped a couple of people I suggested it to.

Good luck!

These will, I am sure, help to put you to sleep. Alas, they haven't helped my wife.


The hip cat sat back
To watch the others wiggle
Like new born kittens.

Jonah, Moby, Dick
Were filled with the energy
to power cyclones.

What's a cat to do?
Kool Cat ignored the rumble
To clean his whiskers.

Hey, why not read Moby Dick? I just picked up a copy today from my local used book store. It has been coming into my purview from various directions for the last while. I tried it years ago, when I was about 12, and it put me to sleep then.

But I just read Jung describe it as America's best novel, so I think I'll give it a try - fushigi; Haiku thread about Moby Dick and then I read Jung's recommendation. Too weird.

Spring nights, when threadlike
shadows creep and my thoughts grow
dark and intriguey,

the only thing that
helps me sleep is a bag of
roasted fushigi.

Isn't a fushigi that metal ball thingy?

The delicate web
Threadlike silk strands suspended
Covered with dew-drops.

The moonlit spider
roams a dewy mandala
that fills like a sail.

Brilliant Al, I assure you it's not. But it is at the very least amusing.

Michelle and M — WOW! Real haiku, and excellent ones too!


The mandala lines
Bring from its centre the quick
Spider to its lunch.

Very nice haiku, Guy! I followed Alex’s link to your blog and have been reading it. I think it’s thought-provoking and well written.

Where is she bound, her
sail made of but dew-laden,
moon-infested seams?

On dark seas I found-
er in arms of the maiden
who lives in my dreams.

Alex, what a nice thing for you to say!