Weekly Short Stories Contest and Company! discussion

Thank you, Ryan!

dust motes in corners
vacated by happiness
- her rocking chair creaks

ryan, that's rather creepy... I like it!

-o-


rocking chair armrest
still, scent of skin lingers on
wood grain like fine hair

-o-

bright dancers circling
May ribbons swirl in small hands
- devil tree awakes

A voice soared higher
than the clouds. With steadfast faith,
a prayer was heard,
dousing the intense fire of
guilt and abomination.

Thanks, Belly-marvelous inspiration. Jim, wow! Leslie, very beautiful transition away from the darkness :)

Unshackled from guilt,
what winsome throats my hands found,
what blood my knife spilt!

You’re quite welcome!

I'll take you back to
the light, even if I have
to drag and whip you.

*Just kidding. Good evening from here :)

When I saw the whip
in Leslie’s hand, I knew I’d
reached the Promised Land.

Lol! Thanks Belly :)

M!! I'll gather all your mice and throw them into the sea.

PostIt promises
drawn from a convenient god
tell me, by whose hand

“PostIt promises” is excellent!


Take, oh, take those whips
away, and the leather you
have worn! The shipboard
mice will run and play though seams
uncaulk and the sails are torn.

* An attempt to follow Jim's beautiful PostIt promises :)

A hand who knows love;
its touch can soften a heart
made of stone yet it
can still gather vicious mice
and throw them into the sea.

bwahahahaha good morning!

What the indictment,
what fell charge, to throw the mice
to Framy & Barge?

I had to Google Framy & Barge to know who they are and what I found is really interesting--the Cast of Characters thread.

Framy & Barge are Stephanie’s invention. They’re the lawyers of the ocean world, ready to devour client and adversary alike.

OMG! You guys have been busy and funny and delightful. What a great read from the transit station, waiting for pizza.

I'm on my smart phone, which impedes my ability to reply/extend. Will jump in as soon as I can.

Enjoy your pizza!

This is wonderfully suggestive! The last stanza makes me think of the old Snap-E-Tom commercials. These little verses are fun to write in chains, aren’t they?

“Dark and suggestive” describes just about everything I’m interested in reading and writing!

Excellent Belly!

M, Belly, Leslie and Jim - wonderful! What a fantastic thread this is to read.

pizza by the peace pipe


'Where is the towel?'
I wipe tomato and grime
into my work shirt

from under the sink
I pull the once white towel
and give it to her

but she demurs for
a quick rub on her own shirt
takes from me a slice.

Excellent, Guy! That just took PG13 to a whole new level... Thanks for the recommendation, too - I'm a big fan of Calvino but haven't seen that one before. Time to investigate ;)

Thank you Ryan! I think? LOL!

You're a fan of Calvino?! I didn't know that, but something in your writing made me think you might like Invisible Cities. I've recently discovered him through a recommendation from Karl Ivan.

romancing the pipes


She sits down with me
to survey the sink's bottom.
She touches the new pipes.
'You are a man, after all,'
she says before I can belch.

This takes the art of mixing the literal with the implied to a dizzying height. At the moment, I’m grinning too much to come up with any pertinent commentary.

LOL! Thank you M. Such fun to write, I confess with a the smallest twinge of guilt and slight redness to my face.

Brilliant and funny, Guy! :)

Guy! Wow-you are on a roll. Wonderful writing. It's great to see the egajd drought has been broken, too. I was starting to worry ;)

Love it, Belly! It always amazes me how you manage to paint such strong pictures with so few words. Phantom of the Opera?

A striking image, Belly! (If I may be pardoned the understatement.)

Also Guy, if you get the chance, try Calvino's 'Marcovaldo' (sorry-not sure how to post links). I had the pleasure of studying him in Secondary School English Lit and have read a few of his works since. I just bought 'Invisible Cities' from the Apple store so I'll let you know my thoughts soon. Thanks again.

Me? Drought? If only. No, my words flow without stop, but sometimes get diverted to other venues. But this thread has been razor sharp for a while, and I need to be on my best game when I jump in. (Although, when I write, I have no idea how my 'A' game translates.)

For some reason the working man's poetry has resonated. Hmmmm. Is that a fushigi, your mentioning Marcovaldo? Because he was hailed as the working man's poet by the Italians. I read somewhere that he is the only writer that the city workers stopped work for a day to note his death. (I haven't verified that anecdote, but it is nice one.)

I have read it. And I have reviewed it. To see it, go to Guy's Review.

I merely watched from the sidelines while Belly and Guy ran all the touchdowns. I was too busy feeding one of my addictions--surfing wristwatches on eBay. I can look at them for hours.

I don’t know. You’d think I would get tired of it. I spotted another fake Rolex for sale on eBay this weekend. Do you suppose people really spend over a thousand dollars for a watch and don’t take it straight to a jeweler to have the back pulled off? More to the point, I suppose, is why anyone would buy a luxury watch he isn’t familiar enough with to know a real one from a fake. Some of the fakes these days are pretty good, though.

ghostly wind fingers
help the piper reach high notes
when out of kilter

Nice, Ryan!

I don’t what it is about watches. I just love looking at them. I don’t wear a watch when I’m at home. I’m not much on jewelry.

Belly wrote: "Very nice, Ryan! And how dare you use this thread for actually posting haiku!"

Lol!

Okay, I'll leave you guys alone :P

M's New Watch

"What's the time?" I asked,
jealous eyes on his Rolex.
"I don't know," he sighed.
"It was an eBay purchase
and I cannot read Chinese."

Please don’t. Let’s get back to our regular programming.

Haha, thanks Belly-it was begging :)

Excellent, Ryan! I’m taking a break from folding clothes.

Lol! I like that Belly..I can't stop smiling :))

Unmindful of the
fees, M ordered a geisha,
to teach him Chinese.

This thread should really come with a warning label.

I’ve led the group down the road to moral corruption.

I think that what Leslie posted in #5189 is the most wonderful thing that could be said of any thread.

Not too explicit, I agree with Belly. (I'm taking things literally harhar)

This thread isn't good for those who have weak bladder control.

Good night, pirates!