His shadow shouts—
don’t betray yourself
stay inside
it is your alibi
months later
on a nightmare scream
he went outside
when his shadow
could not be seen
______________
dVerse prompt to use Maya Angelou’s line his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
Grandmother was a deltiologist
(she didn’t even know it)
postcards came to her
on special occasions
when her children took a trip
& when her husband
lived in Kansas City
that’s how they communicated
there was on most cards
an image worth keeping
Now I have her postcards
with handwritten messages
in cursive script
slanted out of a fountain pen
how the weather was
how are you I am fine
how your uncle got the flu
he is fine now
write again when you can
love & kisses xoxoxo
_________________
NaPoWriMo prompt on something handmade and given to you. Handwriting was once an art even when sent on a postcard.
dits and dahs
dots and dashes
get your rhythm
don’t be slow
tapping out
a universal
language
dit dit dit dah dah dah dit dit dit
••• – – – •••
HELP
___________
NaPiWriMo prompt to look at old technology. Morse Code has been around since 1844 and still used today. Most interesting use was the POW who used the code to spell out the word torture with the blinks of his eyes.
In my home office
a demanding task
never time for a cover-up
as I sit near my coffee cup
upright at my standing desk
there’s no time to letup
have at least 3 computer screens
as I work during this quarantine
just do a personal checkup
in a fit of hygiene
sterilize my triple keyboard
this practice not to be ignored
getting tired but must reconvene
keep it real not overboard
here on my wall the world map
putting together my word wrap
there is so much unexplored
new words for my legal rap
surrounded by photographs
always helps with my paragraphs
piles of paper on my lap
hope right now I don’t collapse
mail ordered a rocker board
never enough java stored
thinking of days with giraffes
praying to God I don’t get bored
now it’s time to light the lamp
end the day with writer’s cramp
night sets sail— come aboard
tackle this case like a champ
excuse me for I hear the printer
thankful to be the breadwinner
someday I’ll be out of home camp
anyday or perhaps midwinter
meanwhile I must be cautious
taking care to not feel nauseous
imagining a lobster dinner
stuck here in my home office
looking so statuesque
this is my manifest
Fill the day
with discernment
new language
& the Spirit
create a spa
for the mind
& the skin
purification
of the pores
& receptors
of the brain
take in the sun rays
& maniacal rains
stand under heavens
& weepingly smile
My God
——————
deVerse quadrille on the word fill
a dream came
there is power
in a name—
in the naming of a thing
A setting sun
makes faces glow
it reflects
on the passing day
sparkles sand
makes sea shine
lingers on the surface
of earth
makes it golden or pink
before it disappears
leaves colors
temporarily
dangling on clouds
brilliant
in its display
worthy of audience
____________________
dVerse prompt to write a quadrille using the word glow
Photo on the beach Pine Cliffs in the Algarve, Portugal
I have heard a cow grunt before giving birth. Sometime for days, I have heard a cow bellow when their calf is taken away. Many times I have heard the moo when the feed truck comes but never did I imagine that I would hear a cow scream. It happened last summer when fierce rains gathered and swelled the dry gulch with fast, moving water, getting deeper and deeper. I could hear it sounding from over the ridge. “A cow is screaming across the arroyo,” I said to myself.
I drove to the ridge top and there was the tragedy unfolding; the cow being swept away by the new-formed current, its footing gone and moving downstream on its flank side, no hoofs on the ground. No matter how much effort was observed, it could not right itself. I watched until I could see it no more.
_________________
dVerse prompt flash fiction using the quote by James Harrison
I want to write like Dali painted
disjointed
everything capable
of fluidity whether a horse
or time
or an elephant and rhino on stilts
elongate the llllllls
create more holes in the OOOOOOs
put a whole world inside just one
put a landscape on the table
a seascape in knees
find paragraphs
that grow trees
________________
dVerse prompt on surrealism
It is late and I am going to bed. There is a scratching sound then it stops. Could it be a bug or a mouse trying to get out of this basket? I shake the basket. No sound. The sound comes again. I look around and there it is. A gecko is half in and half out of my writing book. It has clawed its way out of the pages of paper. Bright green with little eyes, tail and hind legs still in the book. I carry the book outside and free it like a poem into the night air.
