Weekly Short Stories Contest and Company! discussion

Jump right in there, Guy!

Troubled and trembling,
so revived with a false life
just almost taken,

she swallowed the rest
of the blessed antidote, and
fingered the dagger.

He felt the sharp edge
of the blade slide in, the smooth
cold of the blued steel.

He saw the spatters
his blood made and how joyous
his pain made her feel.

Then she raced home and
told her dad how lucky she
was to be alive.

Dropping his issue
of Mad, he slid a clip in
his old .45.

“Oh, it’s all right, Dad,”
she related, out of breath.
“I gave him a few

between the ribs. You
needn’t have waited up,” she
teased, like Nancy Drew.

LOL!! These are SO funny! I have no idea how to jump in. Actually, I'm about to jump off and bake a big batch of oatmeal raisin double chocolate chip cookies, so jumping will have to wait. Oops. This snuck out before the mixing bowls!

His hand shook with rage,
his fingers fumbled with age
and shot off his small toe.

Oh, I can’t write when I’m laughing!

XDDDDD



Screaming, he jumped up
Blood pouring down to the floor
All she did was laugh

I’m still laughing. I’ll never be able to get sleep.

XD

:-)

wow you guys, stop laughing! lol

Now you've got me laughing, again, too!

XD

“The loonies are out,”
scowled the charge nurse. “One stabbed five
times, one lost a toe.”

“There’s a full moon,” said
the file clerk, Jo, searching her
purse for aspirin.

The moon gazed from a
cloudless sky on the clair-obscur
of autumn trees

that seemed made from a
silversmith’s die. Lanes wound through
shadows of unease.

The girls at the clinic always knew when there was a full moon. The ER’s were crowded and the patients who were crazy started coming in.

I love office supplies stores! I started carrying a briefcase and filing my assignments in typed folders when I was in seventh grade. I have lateral files, a photocopier, and a breakroom table in my living room.

The smell of lead in
cedar shavings. (How Lynelle,
legs crossed, writes phone slips!)

I’ve squandered half my
life savings on Lynelle, phone
pads, and paper clips.

Contortions of the
same material, she grew
more familiar

with the smell of ink
and how it must bleed sideways
along her forearms.

The lines of ink ran
slow and thick in evil, root-
like tendrils that seemed

too black to be made
by a Bic. Lynelle watched, pale.
Terrified, she screamed.

I heard poor Lynelle
fall to the floor prey to the
horrid, spreading ink.

I phoned the nearest
office supplies store, stared at
her, and tried to think.

Falling, falling, down
Down, down, tumbling and twirling
Splattering the ground

I rushed to her, but
can’t express my shock! She clutched
me, pulling me close.

“Baby, don’t be so
morose,” she smiled. “We’re live on
W.S.S.”

XD I'm laughing so hard!

Thanks for indulging me in office haiku! I’ve got to go do dishes, but I’ll be back.

I’ve washed the dishes
after hors d’oeuvres too deli-
cious for my raw nerves.

To blanket and sheet!
How will I fare with what I
meet in a nightmare?

Slowly, my eyes close
Dreading the dark awaiting
Just beyond my reach

I see a pair of
flickering eyes, then bravely
turn and run, shrieking.

Alex, I hope you didn’t get hit by a tornado!

The eyes grow larger
Pupils seeming to swallow
My small figure whole

“You can run, but you
can’t hide!” a voice echoes in
the chill, dripping gloom

as I run, breathless,
certain of my doom, searching
for a way outside.

Seizing a board, I
smashed out a pane. Footsteps rang
behind me, I forced

the steel sash and climbed
out. Thunder roared as blindly
I ran through cold rain.

I seemed to fall through
the concrete. The cries of my
pursuers faded.

Out of a sunset
surf I waded, into a
vanished summer’s heat.

The tranquility;
It was just an illusion.
Water filled my lungs.

I fought, but to the
deep I slid distraught, pulled down
by a giant squid!

Once I had slain the
tentacled brute, I glimpsed Grim
in a diver’s suit!

“No need for you to
flip your lid,” waved Grim. “I’m down
here to get the squid.”

Forgetting my troubles,
ascending through bubbles,
lo! what should I see?

A group of sea creatures,
a funeral service
for Arthur Squidley.

“A family man,”
said a cuttlefish cousin.
An eel gave a nod.

Droned the preacher, “Such
noble arms, half a dozen,
this cephalopod!”

They watched the lifeless
form sink into murky depths.
Like a voiceless storm,

the sea creatures wept.
Arthur’s poor wife wailed through a
seaweed handkerchief.

Then I found myself
choking in pounding surf as
warm as bath water.

I washed up on a
sand beach, where I lay among
pieces of driftwood,

glass orbs amber and
blue lost from Japanese nets,
and strands of seaweed.

It was neither bear
lion nor tiger. It was
a lost man adrift,

laying among glass
and nets his fingers curled
his stomach empty.

I've had this one lying around for a while-

If I give away
My heart to you, then would you
Say you love me too?

Catherine, with an apology for perversity, this was the doggerel my weak imagination created.

If only I could
I would; I would cry 'Yes, yes!'
except that I'm mute.

Nothing spells love like
a girlfriend’s signature on
the restaurant bill.

And while writing it
she thinks, mute smile with anger,
here's another x.

“Her anger seething. / Eyes blazing with flames even / the Devil would fear.”

This is really good!

Her soul had rotted,
leaving a black hole that sucked
in the unwary.

Those who had seen her
said she was the devil’s work,
his vacuum cleaner.

Al too funny and a very nice Haiku at the same time.
A small tweak? For the last line, what about 'the Devil's worst fear'?

Oh, I like “. . . dancing with / Death in the cold night.” You’re hammering out some great lines!


Skeletons played oboes,
violins, making macabre
music by Saint-Saens.

The watching world could
not believe Old Grim would take
such a holiday.

The sail unfurled, he
drank Ste. Genevieve. “Oh, my!”
was all he could say.

Old Grim became young
with the drinking of the sainte;
santé's in the blood!

To be young and Grim
is to exceed the heavens,
stay a cut above.

XD

I saw Old Grim at
the Renaissance fair, with his
scythe and long, black cloak.

I hid in dense smoke,
behind some harem girls, and
peered out through their hair.

O how the gypsy
band did play! The ale bottle
swung on its gimbals.

The harem girls be-
gan to sway. I wished I’d read
Jung’s book on cymbals.

Grim paused. I grew pale
with fear. Laughing, he winked then
gave an eerie smile.

Their sinuous arms
imprisoning me, the girls
murmured, “Stay awhile . . .”

LoL! M, that was FUN! Excellent story arc and great last stanza.

Thanks, Guy and Alex! The Renaissance festival was great. The rapier got heavy, hanging from my belt all day, so I ordered a baldric. I noticed that mead is a lot more expensive now than it was seventeen years ago, last time I went.

XD