#99Word Stories; Abandoned Playground

The March 13, 2023 99-word story challenge from Charli Mills at Carrot Ranch is to: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about a place where children once played. It can be a field, a playground, or any place that attracted children to play. But now it is empty. Abandoned. Go where the prompt leads!

In addition to what I post here for the Carrot Ranch challenges, there’s always the Ranch Yarns with Kid and Pal’s responses HERE.

The Custodian by D. Avery

Brody reread the etched and markered initials, sayings, and symbols like favorite passages from a familiar book. He’d disagreed with the principals who’d called it vandalism, as long as the messages weren’t hurtful. Those he had the child remove, under his constructive supervision. The custodian had always understood the children’s need to leave a mark; he never washed off or painted over their messages and art.

“I was here”.

Where are all you children now? he wondered.

Hopefully gone straight to heaven, reunited with family. The children shouldn’t haunt this place.

Brody’s spirit would watch over the silent playground.

Be sure to go to Carrot Ranch to read the complete “Gloria” collection from last week‘s challenge.

d’Verse Quadrille #172; Shift (2)

Shift is the word for Quadrille Monday at d’Verse , where Mish is tending the bar. The theme and style of your poem is open as long as your quadrille is exactly 44 words, not including the title. I have entered a second quadrille, less self serving than my first. Visit the pub to link in and to read more shifty poems.

Transformations of Matter by D. Avery


don’t think me shiftless

I’m bearing witness

to the melting snow


transformations of matter

microscopic multifold

crystalline structures collapse


heaped snow shrinks and shifts

drips water and mist

changing shape and form


winter’s end is this

snow a splitting chrysalis

spring unfolds damp wings

d’Verse Quadrille #172; Shift

Another Quadrille Monday has come and Shift is the word. Mish is the publican at d’Verse , the pub for poets. As always, the theme and style of your poem is open. Just remember your quadrille should be exactly 44 words, not including the title and include some form of the word “shift”. I was delighted with the word, it’s one I use often and just happens to be the title of a little book I put out some years ago. Visit the pub to link in and to read more shifty poems.

A Shifty Response by D. Avery

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Oh, this quadrille should be a gift

for one who authored Chicken Shift

a book of poems some few have read

that fewer still keep by their bed

to read poems both wise and humorous

(forgive me this shifty ploy aimed at poetry consumerists)

W3 Prompt #46; Ode to my Handkerchief

Wea’ve Written Weekly

This week’s Poet of the Week for the W³ prompt is Michelle, and Michelle’s prompt guidelines are to “Write an ode to your handkerchief”. Yep. (Go to The Skeptic’s Kaddish to find out more)

Bright Square of Cloth by D. Avery

A verse for your versatility
bright square of cloth carried or worn
with folds and knots you are transformed
you’re top pick for many activities.

When upon my steel horse I ride
around my neck you’re loosely tied
protecting me from wind blast grit
while offering a little glitz.

On farm and in garden, you are there
catching my sweat, containing my hair
I’ve removed you to use you to flag a long load
lumber over the tailgate going down the road.

Things great and small you’ve helped me to carry
one time a loon chick, oft times found berries
a great one for rescues, you hold things together
you’re a layer and shield in all types of weather.

Emergency clean ups, you fit the bill
serving as bandage or wiping up spills
in a pinch, you could, I suppose
be used to catch what falls from the nose.

All-purpose cloth, really can’t knock it
to wear or just keep there in a pocket.
But you remind me of someone no longer here
who wore bright dew-rags after her treatment
Now I reach for you in my bereavement
I dab at my eyes, use you to sop up my tears.

W3 Prompt #45; Inanimate

Wea’ve Written Weekly

Here’s a last minute response to the most recent W³ prompt. This week’s Poet of the Week is David benAlexander and David’s prompt guidelines are to “Write a poem from the perspective of an inanimate household object, using personification.“ (Go to The Skeptic’s Kaddish to find out more)

Well Tempered by D. Avery

I am the meter of your measured days

moon faced within my quarters
weight of time on my rounded shoulders
you look to me when you check your plans
you look to me for a sense of order

Often you glance upon my face
what you see affects your pace 
I cannot move, I run in place

I remain still up on the wall
except for when, in spring and fall
you take me down, you stroke my hands
then put me back, reinstalled 

Inanimate, yes, but with moving parts
I make my rounds but never depart
when the house is still, I’m its beating heart 

I’m analog, a relic sublime
a cosmic model for keeping time
always turning, rain or shine

I am the measure of your metered days

#99Word Stories; Gloria & #SSS; Lounge

These two scenes feature characters who debuted in The Verge and who have shown up for Six Sentences and 99 word challenges off and on.

The March 6, 2023 story challenge from Charli Mills at Carrot Ranch is to: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about Gloria. You can name a character that comes to you as Gloria or you can interpret the Laura Branigan song into a story. What image comes to you? Go where the prompt leads! Submit at Carrot Ranch by March 11, 2023.

The word from Denise for this week’s Six Sentence challenge is “lounge”. Link HERE to join in for that challenge.

Where Everybody Knows Your Name by D. Avery (99-words)

Daddy told Katie and Bob how good it was to see Gloria was still around. 

“Who’s Gloria?” I asked.

“The woman we met on the sidewalk.”

“Oh.” I remembered. And that Daddy had hurried on, without even saying hello.

Bob was saying yes, still here, still Gloria, still crazy after all these years.

“Why is she crazy?” They all looked at me. Katie and Bob looked at Daddy.

“Well, Peanut, she’s… different.”

“So?”

“Don’t worry, Penelope,” Katie said. “Gloria’s okay.”

“Yeah,” Bob added. “Everyone knows Gloria.”

I wasn’t worried. But somehow I didn’t think anyone knew Gloria at all.

Breakfasting by D. Avery (99-words & 6-sentences)

As Daddy and Katie got busy opening the diner, I swept the sidewalk in front.

“Good morning, Gloria.”

“We meet again,” she studied me, smiled when I asked why she was crazy. “The plot of my story is unexpected, that’s all; have coffee with me, I’ll tell you some of it.”

Katie looked over her shoulder at Bob when we went into the diner but led Gloria and me to my lounge, the booth with the ripped seat where I was allowed to leave my drawing pad and books.

“Once upon a time,” Gloria began, “There was a princess.”

#99Word Stories; Gloria

The March 6, 2023 99-word story challenge from Charli Mills at Carrot Ranch is to: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about Gloria. You can name a character that comes to you as Gloria or you can interpret the Laura Branigan song into a story. What image comes to you? Go where the prompt leads!

The prompt reminded me of a 390-word story I’d already written. Here it is less 291 words. And, by the way, in addition to what I post here for the Carrot Ranch challenges, there’s always the Ranch Yarns with Kid and Pal’s responses HERE.

Gloria by D. Avery

“For pie,” Gloria told a shopper at the sweet potato bin.

She added butter, milk, and eggs to her cart. “My children like custardy pie,” Gloria informed another shopper.

“Flour, sugar— for pie.” But the stockboy’s nod was for his earbuds.

“My children prefer sweet potato pie to pumpkin.” The cashier only asked Gloria for a store card.

“Phew,” Gloria sighed, greeting her empty kitchen.

Gloria tidied while the pie baked, set the table while it cooled, then sat facing the door. Finally, Gloria ate a slice of sweet potato pie.

“Delicious,” Gloria said to no one but herself.

Be sure to go to Carrot Ranch to read the complete “Golden Onion” collection from last week‘s challenge.

#SixSentenceStories; Lounge

Denise, at GirlieontheEdge, venerable hostess of Six Sentence Stories, puts out a prompt word EVERY week. All she asks is that the response is in six sentences, no more no less. And yet, I often fail to appear, as a story often fails to appear. I’m not proud of what I’m presenting this week for the prompt word “lounge”, but I am glad to make an appearance among the Sixarians. Let this serve as proof that Denise is serious when she says you can play along just for fun. Go HERE to link in and read more Sixes.

Dismembering the Prompt by D. Avery

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I remember they were in the lounge. 

O, one of them suddenly made a lunge!

E!,  he knifed the other, piercing a lung.

N, he’d seemed a distinguished man of letters, not a lug.

Ug, an ‘ell of a thing— I was quite undone, u know?

.

Gee, u must long for arrest, perhaps in the lounge?

Imagining Literary Artists Collection

Charli Mills, of Carrot Ranch, stated in her February 20th story challenge that, “The world needs literary artists.”
“Yet, how do we define ourselves?” she asks. She challenged us to write 99 words about what it means to be a literary artist. The responses indicate, some quite eloquently, that working with words as a literary artist is an act of bravery and courage; it can be dangerous; it can be liberating and transformative; it can be a means of sharing reverence and wonder.
Read and comment on the collected responses at Carrot Ranch.

Carrot Ranch Literary Community

Welcome to Carrot Ranch Literary Community where creative writers from around the world and across genres gather to write 99-word stories. A collection of prompted 99-word stories reads like literary anthropology. Diverse perspectives become part of a collaboration.

We welcome encouraging comments. You can follow writers who link their blogs or social media.

Those published at Carrot Ranch are The Congress of Rough Writers.

The Creation of Literary Art by sweeterthannothing

The battleground- an expanse of white, pure as undriven snow.

An army of writers, poets, novelists, and literary artists warming up on the sidelines, glasses poised just so, fingers nimble and ready.

Words and worlds, life and death, the mundane and the beautiful will come to life and die today on this page, as we charge ever-hopeful into the vast emptiness of our ever more analytical planet wielding weapons of mass creation.

Ink-black blood from words crushed and deleted…

View original post 2,576 more words

#99Word Stories; Golden Onion

The February 27, 2023 99-word story challenge from Charli Mills at Carrot Ranch is to: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about a golden onion. Any golden onion. One planted or harvested. An onion chopped for a meal. How can you use an onion as a prop in a character’s hand? Go where the prompt leads!

I haven’t posted in a while but here’s a double with a nod to last week’s “Literary Artist” challenge.

Appearances by D. Avery

My sister and I were getting some candy when we recognized the witch in front of us. The clerk told the witch he’d got all her items in one bag but that it was very heavy. My sister jabbed me when I said, Let’s put some in another bag, I’ll carry it for you. The witch said if my sister was coming too, she’d buy a bag of golden onions as well for her to carry. So that’s how we got into the witch’s house, following her down the street carrying her groceries.

She didn’t smile like a witch.

xxx

We followed the witch inside and set down our loads. A black cat, curled on a chair, stretched, revealing its white belly and toes. What appeared at first to be a crystal ball on a small table was only a large golden onion. My sister had been wrong. This was no witch.

But then, cradling the onion in her palms, the woman declared Not all lies are stories and that Stories are not all lies. She said I was a literary artist and gave me the pen and writing pad I hadn’t even known were in the grocery bag.

Be sure to go to Carrot Ranch to read the complete “Smear of Jam” collection from last week. And there’s always the Ranch Yarns with Kid and Pal’s responses HERE.