For Maria Antonia‘s #picoftheweek photo challenge I am crossing off the “Drip Drop” square on the bingo sheet.
Check out Maria’s #2022picoftheweek to see how you can participate in this fun challenge using the bingo sheet as a prompt.
A Six Sentence Story is a story told in exactly six sentences. It could also be a six lined or six stanza poem; it could be a soc, a bots, or creative non-fiction. This week’s prompt word, provided by our hostess Denise, at GirlieontheEdge is “fluid“. This is a double, yeah, a 12-pac, featuring two favorite characters.
Monitoring by D. Avery
“Marge Small, what is so awfully wrong underneath that car hood that you slammed it shut, cursing a blue streak all the while?”
“What’s wrong, Ilene, is that there shouldn’t be anything wrong, but there is something totally wrong, because this engine is ruined, all because some dumbasses can’t even be bothered to check their fluids!”
“Hey, don’t yell at me, I’ve been checking my own fluids since I first laid eyes on a dipstick.”
“Uh-huh; let me wash up and we’ll join Nard and the guys at the bar. Your blue eyes indicate you’re a quart low.”
“And your brown eyes indicate that you’re full of it.”
Marge drummed the steering wheel, driving in silence.
“Marge, it’s just a car. And it wasn’t your fault, there was nothing you could do.”
“My father taught me to check engine fluids when I was just a little girl,” Marge said, still staring straight ahead. “He showed me how to check the old oil for grit, gunk, metal filings; he knew the importance of monitoring fluids… Ilene, when I saw him in that hospital bed, bags of fluids dripping into him, them testing his blood for this that and the other… And then them telling me there was nothing they could do, he’d let it go too long…
Ilene sat in the truck with her friend until Marge was ready to join the guys inside at the bar.
The May 23, 2022, story challenge from Charli Mills at Carrot Ranch is to: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story using the phrase “well’s gone dry.” Is it a real well or a metaphorical well? Why is it dry? What is the consequence and to whom? Go where the prompt leads! Submit at Carrot Ranch by May 28, 2022.
My response is a Double Ennead, a syllabic poetry form created by Colleen Cheseboro. A Double Ennead usually doesn’t rhyme but I played with a rhyme scheme.
Well’s Gone Dry by D. Avery
in wind-stormed time of drought
nothing shines but rust
silt and sand swirled colors of the silent muse
faded promise wrung out
sunbaked bone and dust
in hard times, hard to trust
to shake fear and doubt
to beseech again and again be refused
one must do as one must
seeding one’s own clouds
with faith of rooting sprouts
breaking through the crust
dream of green catching glistening drops of dew
if muse gasps, one must shout
wake up dreams long hushed
Be sure to go to Carrot Ranch to read the complete “Mom Selfies” collection from last week. And there’s always the Ranch Yarns with Kid and Pal’s responses HERE.
For Maria Antonia‘s #picoftheweek photo challenge I am crossing off the “My Happy Place” square on the bingo sheet. For the first time in five weeks the picture is from my back yard, and for me is a pleasant reminder of springs past. I’ve always enjoyed these juvenile Eastern Newts, or red efts.
Check out Maria’s #2022picoftheweek to see how you can participate in this fun challenge using the bingo sheet as a prompt.
A Six Sentence Story is a story told in exactly six sentences. It could also be a six lined or six stanza poem; it could be a soc, a bots, or creative non-fiction. This week’s prompt word, provided by our hostess Denise, at GirlieOntheEdge, is “detour“.
Six Sentence Detour
She didn’t feel up to a dinner party, not on the very day she finally was back in her own home, but for this hostess she would make an effort, would throw together a six-bean salad for the potluck buffet, would make an appearance, would at least be seen on the scene before ducking out and retreating to reflect on her long strange detour.
For she wasn’t yet ready to talk about where she’d been and the beautiful, austere lands she’d seen— damaged yet enduring lands that, despite dust storms, droughts, wildfires, and floods, still managed to inspire a sense of wonder and a modicum of hope.
She’d found some people living in those lands to also admire for their endurance and adaptability, but mostly the trip had made her weary and wary of the lands’ people, not of those many she’d seen that didn’t have a meal, let alone a home, but of the many more that looked the other way, that tossed blame instead of help or empathy.
And now a dinner party?
Well, these gathered people with their stories, as colorful, as sweet and sour as her proffered salad, might be good medicine for her subdued mood. No more detours— time to break bread at the Bistro, with its down-home cooking, served with all the sixin’s.
I am still away from home. Presently I am in Georgia and have chosen the “Numbered” square from Maria Antonia‘s bingo sheet for her #picoftheweek photo challenge.
The numbered grave markers in this photo are in the cemetery at Andersonville, the Camp Sumpter Civil War military prison where thousands died as a result of the adverse conditions.
When Dorence Atwater was there in 1864, he worked in the hospital *where he recorded the names and grave locations of the deceased. He secretly copied this list and smuggled it out when he was released. After the war he asked the War Department to publish the list but they refused. He met Clara Barton, a battlefield nurse, who was looking for missing soldiers. She was eager to help. Barton accompanied Dorence and the US Army Quartermaster expedition to Andersonville to mark the graves of the dead. Atwater’s death register, published in 1866, enabled many families to locate their loved ones. Thanks to his work, over 95 percent of the graves were identified.*
(the italicized words were lifted directly from the National Park Service’s brochure)
Over 13,000 are buried here. It remains an active veterans’ cemetery.
Maria has updated the bingo sheet with 25 new categories for April, May, and June. Check out Maria’s #2022picoftheweek to see how you can participate in this fun prompt.
This photo is my take on “In the Room” from Maria Antonia‘s bingo sheet for her #picoftheweek photo challenge. It’s taken from a paved boat ramp, looking down, too far down, on Lake Powell, one of Arizona’s reservoirs. These elephantine boats are trapped, and these below are as well. What is it we’re not talking about?
Maria has updated the bingo sheet with 25 new categories for April, May, and June. Check out Maria’s #2022picoftheweek to see how you can participate in this fun prompt.
ShiftnShake 