Hiding

Picture prompt for Magpie Tales

Hiding from me
I cannot see
who
I
really
am

Prejudice

A mass of children

spin their threads

into a blind web

that drums with power

until

one 

voice

insists,

Think, people!

We 

are

not

the 

same

A combined prompt with picture from Magpie Tales

and words from The Sunday Whirl

shared with Poets United: Poetry Pantry

Miffed

Joachim Buecklaer, 1560

Cinder was sorta miffed
It always went this way
She worked her fingers to the bone
While all the others played.

For the picture inspired writing prompt by Tess Kincaid at Magpie Tales

She Ain't Alice

photo by Elaine Usdin

For Magpie Tales:  The Mag

She Ain't Alice

That's plain to see

The rabbit's dead

Too stiff to live

At the top her lips of teal

What did the artist intend to say?

Hold a rabbit far away?

A box in a box? Far too crude

Or could it be my perception's screwed?

Two Photos By Daniel...The Story of Belle

photo: Daniel Murtagh

Magpie Tales prompt

 picture by Daniel Murtagh

THE STORY OF BELLE

Belle had been a young thing

with beauty and not much sense
She decided to take a powder
instead of recommence

She left her journal open
her last thoughts for all to see
followed the powder
with a snort of strong whiskey

She barely made it to her bed
where she disrobed shaking
her pose intended to tell
restraints were her own making

The Mystery That Is Pollock

Jackson Pollock for Magpie Tales

and Poets United:  Poetry Pantry

JACKSON

As a child he was the fifth
as an adult he was a half
and a whole
that became nothing
and too much

He battled his demons
with drink and paint
for almost two years
driven by drips and swirls
he simply painted

And when it was good
he could not accept it
or was self-exalted
sabotaging himself and
the paints that made him

Drips made him famous
Drink made him dead

Perchance To Dream

Jacek Yerka, 2011

Perchance To Dream

There was a young lady who dreamed in chapters

Who loved her life but feared the after

She dreamed she was awake

But dreaming sealed her fate

And she was lost forever in the subchapters

Thanks for the fun prompts, Tess from Magpie Tales.

Blowing Smoke

A photo prompt to entice us to create

from Magpie Tales with Tess Kincaid

Blowing Smoke

you see beauty

you keep us blindfolded

for your pleasure

hoping we don't feel

the piercing wire

that holds us in check

while YOU blow smoke

An Eye For An Eye

We buried Ma and the boys down by the creek when the scarlet fever took them. It wuz jus' me an Pa for a lon' time.  I turned suitors away 'cause Pa needed me.  I weren't leavin' him for nothin'.

Pa always said a liar was worse than a thief cuz sometimes there's reason to steal but thar's ne'er a reason to lie.

Tonight while I's out, that good for nothin' neighbor came to jaw with Pa some. He told a pack of lies and Pa believed 'im!

Pa wuz waitin' when I come in, white as a ghost and mad as a wet hen.  He had his double ought ready and gave me no choice.  His voice shook and a tear rolled down his cheek but his aim and his intent wuz steady.  

Said he'd heard I'd been sneakin' around seein' the new teacher and up to no good. I tried to tell him why I had been seein' Teacher but Pa di'na let me git a word in edge wise.  He cocked that scatter gun and said, "Git outta this house, girl. I don't abide liars ner whores!"

I packed my few belongin's in a bed roll and saddled my old horse, Isaiah, and left without lookin' back.

"An eye for an eye..." the Bible said cuz I 'member all the words Ma read to us by lamp light.  First I shot that no account neighbor for lying to Pa. Then I seen Teacher and tol' him.  He hept me writ a letter to Pa about what I'd done and the why of it 'n ask Teacher to read it to Pa after he'd cooled down some.

I's a murderer and they hang people for that but I weren't no liar, ner a whore, ner a thief. I'd been learnin' to read so's I could read to Pa at night jes like Ma usta do.

Ole Isaiah and I headed west.  I'd heard you could get lost out there.

Thanks, Tess!

Max And The Cat

Midsummer Night's Melancholy by Michael Sowa

The dog watching from across the alley only wanted to play
but the cat, being a cat, kept himself turned away
window to window Max took the leap
safely landing on his feet
but the uppity cat just ran away

A  picture inspired writing prompt

from Magpie Tales

by 

Tess Kincaid

Apples for Magpie Tales

image by Sarolta Ban 

Magpie Tales

with 

Tess Kincaid

Back in the days of rotary phones and unlocked doors people were trusting and welcomed strangers inside their homes.

On a hot summer day with all the windows open and the screen door unlocked a teen aged girl prepared a picnic basket to take to the creek where the youth group would gather after church for fun and swimming.  

Her parents had driven to church in the car earlier and she would walk there after she finished.  It was but a short distance.  She hummed Amazing Grace as she placed the last apple inside the basket and closed the lid.

A knock at the door surprised her.  Every one she knew was at church and she would be late if she didn't hurry.

Picking up the picnic basket and her Bible she hurried to the door planning to walk quickly to church and arrive before the opening hymn.

A stranger stood on the other side of the screen and the young girl had an uncomfortable feeling. She dropped the hook latch into place as she greeted the man, asking how she could help.  Looking at his feet, turning his hat in his hands, he spoke softly and asked for "Just a drink of cool water, Ma'am, if it's no trouble."

She smiled and said, "Of course, I'll be right back." Sitting her picnic basket and Bible by the door she went into the kitchen letting the water run a moment so the cool fresh water from the well would be what she gave him in the glass taken from the open shelf by the sink.

A strange sound made her turn. The man was pulling the screen door away from the latch. Dropping the glass, she ran to the phone on the kitchen wall, a rotary phone.  The kind before push button, the kind before speed dial, the kind before 911...she dialed O for operator as he entered the kitchen.

He ripped the handset from the phone as she gripped it tightly, frantically trying to reach the operator. Wrapping the phone cord around her neck, he began to drag her out the door he had just forced open. She tried to scream but the cord was so tight a scream could not escape.  Fighting and kicking as best she could he kept dragging her, saying not a word.  As they got closer to the door, she became more frantic and her kicks turned over the picnic basket, apples rolling, with the Bible falling onto the floor.

Silently, he bent and put one apple in his pocket as he dragged her down the steps.

Frantic, her parents left church early because Grace never missed especially with the planned outing she had been looking forward to attending.

When they pulled up they knew something was wrong.  The screen door was ajar and a little crooked on its hinges.  The apples Grace has so carefully picked were strewn from the door way onto the porch.  Her Bible lay open. No Grace anywhere.

After looking every where and no Grace, they went to church which was just being dismissed.  The whole community was there so the Sheriff and his deputy organized search parties and they began to search.

The ladies making tea, coffee, lemonade and sandwiches for those searching in between tears and prayers they waited.

A lady picked up Grace's Bible and noticed the section it had fallen open to...Hebrews 13:2 seemed to stand out.  It was read aloud. "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."

And somewhere in the deep woods, Grace lay with her eyes open and sightless as the stranger took his first bite of the apple.

All

Still Life, 1907 by John Frederick Peto 

still hanging

umbrella, hat, bag

all that's left

Magpie Tales

Gossamer Wings

ARTWORK by ULRIKE BOLENZ

For Magpie Tales

Gossamer wings born in Fae air

Resting on flowers

First here then there

Gossamer wings born in Fae air

Flying close as she dares

Wings flit magic showers

Gossamer wings born in Fae air

Fairy dusts the flowers

Spawning Anew

painting by Daria Petrilli 

for Magpie Tales with Tess Kincaid

and

Poets United Poetry Pantry

Baring the truth

We are connected

When Mother cries

We taste tears

Birth life death

The cycle slows

Losing ground

Share the blame

Without honor

Hoping we awaken

In time to rebirth 

A balanced world

Crappie fish spawning

Coulrophobia, A Fear of Clowns (Rated: Gross and Horrible)

For Magpie Tales with Tess Kincaid

WARNING:  THIS TRIO OF LIMERICKS IS DISTURBING AND DISGUSTING.
APOLOGY:  I WRITE WHAT COMES TO MIND.  THERE WAS NO JOY IN THIS WRITING.

John Wayne Gacy liked young boys
He played rough and then destroyed
Promises lured them inside
Gacy gave them a ride
And Pogo was filled with joy

Thirty-three he did whack
While forcing them on their back
Ropes or boards at their throats
Gleefully, cheerfully, he did gloat
No one knew he was a maniac

Finally caught way too late
Under his house graves did wait
Hauled to jail and tried for murder
Gacy was a multiple disturber
By lethal injection he met his Fate

Perhaps the most chilling image of Gacy of all

(Chicago Tribune)

Folly

For Sunday Scribblings 2 and Magpie Tales with Tess Kincaid

The folly of secret keeping

bursting forth

from sealed lips

Sworn secrets

rush

into open air

Clowns and Dolls

Sunday Whirl~Weekly Wordle

clowns and dolls 

fill the stairwell

another burst 

of  frantic work

unplugged

vacuum emits no sound

wrapped in fleece

i seal glass

inside my wound

attempting to instill

values and ethics

i corral the cherubs

with resignation

we dress for the day

to tumble through

clowns and dolls

filling the stairwell 

Action Figures by Edith Vonnegut

for

Tess Kincaid at Magpie Tales

Combined prompts

Pretty On Pink

her eyes
screamed
no one heard
but
on the base board
her blood wept
a name

A few words for Magpie Tales

Double Barrel Challenge

Bond of Union, 1956, by M. C. Escher 

The Bond of Union 

plays in young minds

toying with  

what they see 

what it could be

never clearly seeing 

what it is

was

nor can be

Trying to meet the challenge from Imaginary Gardens With Real Toads combined with Tess's prompt at Magpie Tales

War

For Magpie Tales with Tess Kincaid

image credit:  Dick Blick Art

War touches all
with long bony fingers
in our dreams
through lifetimes
we can say
it is for the greater good
try telling that to
the ones who came home
incomplete
try to tell the ones
who never came home