Monday 26 May 2014

Choices. Parables on the Journey.

A fork in the road. An old man trudging along. Unable to decide, he turns back.
Two doors. Which one do you enter.
Purgatory is no place to dwell, yet many do.
A traveler arrives at an intersection. There is a sign. It says stop. Taking it literally, his journey ends forever.
Your favourite dish is removed from the menu. Starvation now seems a real possibility.
Is the end really the end, or the beginning of a new journey. You choose.
It doesn’t matter what you do. Just make a [insert expletive] decision!
Do something.
Stop sitting on the fence.
__________
100 words, written for Friday Fictioneers, week of May 23.
PHOTO PROMPT Copyright - Erin Leary

Wednesday 14 May 2014

Perspective - A Journey into the Nonsensical

"Are you really sure that a floor can’t also be a ceiling?”
― M.C. Escher

Depends on perspective
Look from afar at the world and you’ll see
That up can be down and down can be up
Perspective also means
Down is from ducks
But don’t duck and weave.
Duck and cover, and don’t be left
For left is right if you don’t duck and cover
And right is good
And so is greed (some say)
Who is that some
Some say someday
Where day becomes night
And knights defend damsels
Do days defend damsels too
Damsels in distress
Or damsels in white, and damsels in black
But not damsels in black and white
For black and white is monochrome
Which is only part of the spectrum
Like good and evil
Evil is everywhere
Also God is everywhere
God and evil are everywhere
But is God evil
Or just omnipresent
Like the stars
The sun is a star
Your son is your heir
He may be your star
But air, like wind and fire and earth
Are elements
As hydrogen and helium are elements
Of the periodic table
The dining table, the times table
The timetable
Bus timetable, train timetable
Train journey
To the tablelands,
Or to lands unknown
Take the train
Train hard and often
To be fit, but not befit
Or fit for a king
King size, king pin
Hair pin, lynch pin, lynch mob
Mob psychology pop psychology
Pop culture, pop songs
Pop in for a drink, a soda pop
Mom and pop
Look up to your parents
Look up to the sky
Look up the answer
For its just perspective

Where the floor to one is the ceiling to another
___________________________________
A nonsensical journey written for "Write on Edge", using the quote at the start as a prompt.

Tuesday 18 March 2014

Change

I walked towards the bartender holding two twenties.

“No change,” he snarled.

“Satisfy yourself, you smug git,” I muttered, pocketing the extra forty, having just used a tenner to pay for my drink.

___________________
33 words for Trifecta: Week 114, using the word SATISFY  (transitive verb), with this definition:
 to make happy : please  

Wednesday 12 March 2014

Love Letter

Dale Polesky was in love with Mia.

He wrote a note to her.

It read:

"Dear Mia. I aim to be yours.
Elope lady be by Dale Polesky forever of this day on."
_____________________________
33 words with Palindromes, Trifecta Writing Challenge, for Trifextra Week 104.

Friday 28 February 2014

A Trip

"Look what I've got." I waved the envelope in her direction. 

"Plane tickets. A trip. How nice. Where are we going."

A trip - yes, but tickets - no. Just one ticket. And we, well:  That wasn't what I meant....

------------------------------

33 words written for Trifextra: Week 103 at:
http://www.trifectawritingchallenge.com/2014/02/trifextra-week-103.html

Tuesday 29 October 2013

Junkies

Unlike most junkies, they were lucky. The music and films meant money. A stream of royalty cheques, alleviated any supply problems, and provided all the trimmings of a privileged life. No need to be on the streets. No reason to steal. No cause to worry about the next taste, or the one after that. Suppliers were always on hand. Despite this, they were junkies, and I came in second by a long way.

They loved me, but they loved the junk more. I had everything a child could want. Everything that is, except parents. High fashion, cutting edge, heroin chic, the press said. Never showed the ugly side, the sordid underbelly. The hours wasted, the days lost. Too strung out to do anything. Too high to care. No conversation, hugs, smiles, glances. Even a boo in the face had zero effect. Absent, except in the brief periods between when the drugs wore off and the craving began. That’s my memory. That’s my childhood, and that is why I left.

They called me back. They pleaded. I found it hard not to listen. I would believe their promises, and I would go back. Wishing it would be different, knowing it wouldn’t. The cycle repeated. The word rehab, was just a word. An expensive holiday, nothing more. The pain would become too great to stay.
 After leaving and returning far too many times, I left, and forced myself to ignore their pleas. I was, with much effort, able to shake off the bonds and begin my own life. I cut them off. Now, many years later, the pain has faded into a memory. I have my own family, my own children. We share laughter, hugs kisses, sadness and tears. We love. We live.


I read the headline again. “Rock star couple, victim of tainted drugs”. Panic wells up from deep within. Gulping lungfuls of air, I begin sobbing unstoppably. All the years, believing they were dead to me, and only now do I really know.
_______________

333 words written for Trifecta Challenge: Week 101, incorporating the word boo:


Wednesday 16 October 2013

Celebration

The whole family is there. My babushka, old, withered and regal, perched next to my baccy chewing grandfather.  Aunts, uncles and cousins, parents and siblings, we are more numerous than I remember. In Sunday best, we know the baccate display is just a teaser. A Bacchanalean feast of Babylonian proportion is about to happen. A pair of Bacchantes, begin singing, over the sound of a Bach Cantata. The new baby is proudly carried in by his Godfather, my bachelor uncle. Resplendant in a pale blue Babygro, our newest addition has absolutely no idea that all this is for him.
_________________
99 words written for Trifecta: Week Ninety-Nine. The bold words are from the top part of the prompt: