100 Word Story – Gnome

The gnome at your door is not what you think!

He was a proud elven warrior, well-versed in poetry and lore, an excellent harpist descended from Lugh of the Silver Hand, his mother a promiscuous nymph.

When he witnessed the Industrial Revolution he shrunk in stature, fleeing to the fields to hide.

Years later he went to the Somme. It was then his heart turned to stone and broke clean in half. He was transfixed, unable to move, deformed.

How he arrived in our shops I don’t know. I pray that he doesn’t either.

Bow with respect as you pass.

100 words ~ Taxi Driver

Tired, I climb in the taxi expecting a boring drive. Taxi drivers do often talk.

He tells me about a woman he heard on the radio, ‘Very brave woman’ he says ‘against all the dangers, full of integrity, loyal to the people, you know?’ His accent, I don’t recognise.

He smiles. ‘They are making a film about her. She has children now and peace. She went to live in Turkey. God bless her. I love her,’ he says.

His eyes in the rear-view mirror, oriental, dark liquid, could see right through to your soul.

I smile. I am really surprised.

100 Word Story – Goldilocks

He came in the back door and sat down at the table. He shoveled down every morsel.

Goldilocks looked horrified. The porridge was all gone. Milk was splashed on the floor.

She heard a soft growl as she stood there and stared. She shivered and her hair stood on end as a spoon floated up and spun in the air.

A chair pulled itself out. It wasn’t the hard chair or the soft chair or the tiny chair made for her size. It was covered in spider’s webs and she wasn’t Miss Moffit.

No-one was there. Not even a bear.

100 Word Story – Broken

There was a time before the time.

There was a time of innocence. Or ignorance. There was a time when faith and hope weren’t needed.

That was before he broke her heart. He was the first. The one who made it easier for everyone else to do the same. Pull out one piece and the whole structure is never safe. Romance becomes an illusion and a trap.

You can tell, by that one small line beside her right eye, that she is cynical. Her left eye shows how pure and strong she was before.

These days, she can’t love anyone.

A poem by Billy Collins

I had to post this because I remember that feeling too. Brilliant poem

On Turning Ten – Poem by Billy Collins

The whole idea of it makes me feel
like I’m coming down with something,
something worse than any stomach ache
or the headaches I get from reading in bad light–
a kind of measles of the spirit,
a mumps of the psyche,
a disfiguring chicken pox of the soul.

You tell me it is too early to be looking back,
but that is because you have forgotten
the perfect simplicity of being one
and the beautiful complexity introduced by two.
But I can lie on my bed and remember every digit.
At four I was an Arabian wizard.
I could make myself invisible
by drinking a glass of milk a certain way.
At seven I was a soldier, at nine a prince.

But now I am mostly at the window
watching the late afternoon light.
Back then it never fell so solemnly
against the side of my tree house,
and my bicycle never leaned against the garage
as it does today,
all the dark blue speed drained out of it.

This is the beginning of sadness, I say to myself,
as I walk through the universe in my sneakers.
It is time to say good-bye to my imaginary friends,
time to turn the first big number.

It seems only yesterday I used to believe
there was nothing under my skin but light.
If you cut me I could shine.
But now when I fall upon the sidewalks of life,
I skin my knees. I bleed.

Contactless

no one spoke a word to me
three days have past, since the last,
(a drunk outside the station
who wanted company)

in the shop I pay for milk
no hands to touch
no coins to pass
an electronic beep

contactless transaction
(shallow smiles)
(I could weep)
thanks is all we say

if I laid down
beside the road
and fell into deep sleep
it might bring some relief

but every day I walk for miles
to pass the time away
‘Is this the road to Coventry?’
‘They all are mate, I think’

 

 

 

*** being sent to Coventry is an expression or an action that means no-one will speak to you – you are excluded

 

Sad Roses

look at the roses

there is the vase

a symbol of passion

expensive perfection

force-grown under glass

and this is your gesture

of undying love?

a weed from the ditches

plucked

as you thought of me

out on your walk

would  show me far more

weeds persist

weeds push through

when the growing gets tough

your love without loyalty

isn’t

enough

 

 

 

 

Rue Des Barres

In the Paris Cafe

on Rue Des Barres

I see you are hungry.

You need a cold drink.

Your thirst isn’t quenched.

You flirt with the waiter,

who looks like Chagall

with his curved archer smile.

Nothing is wrong.

He responds to your mirth.

Your hands

the wings

of a trapped butterfly

flutter and flap.

You are trying to grip.

Your twinkling eyes and deep-seated desires

have more rising steam than the dish he presents.

You’re on fire.

It’s a sign of your burgeoning age.

But it’s not as late as you fear.

I take a sip of clear water

That’s all I now need.

I don’t want fancy wine anymore.

I am fine.

Lean back in your chair.

Relax at my side.

I have told you before

How deeply I care.

The future is certain, open and wide.

Questions of honour

Nimue Brown's avatarDruid Life

If a chap in a chivalric or mythic tale announces that his honour has been damaged in some way, you know there’s going to be a duel or other violence. His honour may have been damaged because he didn’t get the right cut of meat at the feast, or someone suggested his wife is not the prettiest woman in the history of the world. The speed of his horse may have been questioned, or some more obscure personal pride thing that no sensible person could have seen coming. And then, so that honour can be satisfied, pain must be inflicted, maybe even death. It’s a way of thinking about honour that has never made much sense to me.

For women, honour is usually framed in such stories as being all about not having sex, or only having sex with the man you are married to. The woman who has sex…

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