1905 - Unruffled

 

MLMM Monday Wordle #485 presents the following words for us to work with:

town, anxiety, box, half, wrong, sound, today, full, bench, running, message, again

Unruffled

Pigeons—

Ever hopeful,

Eyes on the box

On the bench

Beside him.

His half-eaten lunch.

Today,

As on most days,

He sits on the bench

And the pigeons wait,

Shuffling impatiently.

A little anxious,

Scattering as runners

Jog past nearby,

Reassembling again,

watching, waiting.

Beyond the bench

The sound of the town—

Horns, 

Beeps, 

Clatter—

Muted by the trees

But a message full of urgency.

Not his message.

Oblivious

To the thrum around him,

He breaks bread

With the pigeons.

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1904 - Lotus Position

 

The Sunday Whirl presented these twelve words for us to use in a creative writing piece. 

voicemails high exhale wind begin unaware scared glows ghost storm story lotus

Lotus Position

Inhale. Exhale.

Begin.

Inhale. Exhale.

Focus.

Inhale. Exhale.

No story.

Just be.

Inhale. Exhale.

Unaware that the

Ghosts of urgency

leave voicemails.

Inhale. Exhale.

Focus.

The wind passes.

Storms too.

Inhale. Exhale.

Not scared.

Inhale. Exhale.

Just be

Highly aware.

Inhale. Exhale.

The present glows.

Inhale. Exhale.

That’s all.

Just be.

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1903 - No-one Calls That Number Now

 

 Image provided by ChatGPT

MLMM Monday Wordle #484 presents the following words for us to work with:

call, delete, diary, found, level, maiden, nobody, now, phone, reprimand, tired, vindictive

No-one Calls That Number Now

In remembrance of 

P.W.Petty,

Who talked to his wife every night.

She was not there

To reprimand him—

She would never even know.

Nobody would know.

No-one called that number now.

He looked at the phone—

Her contact page looked back.

Found by accident,

Looking for something else,

And now, there it was, in front of him.

He paused…but could not delete it.

◊

Later that day, tired and lonely,

He opened his diary,

Picked up his fountain pen,

Looked at the blank page

Open in front of him

And paused again—

Pen poised—

He hesitated to write the first words,

The maiden words,

On that clean, white page,

The words that would take him 

Back through the day’s events.

◊

It would not have been vindictive

Or somehow disrespectful—

Logic, level and clear,

Said to delete it, it was the past.

But he could not.

He put his pen to the paper

And began writing—

“My love…”

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1902 - Acts of God

 

Image nicked from the internet

The Sunday Whirl presented these twelve words for us to use in a creative writing piece. 

shot foot dark bright prairie grass hot ash dead resurgence fight god 

Poetic licence: Australia doesn't have 'prairies' so I substituted 'paddocks'.

Acts of  God

It was a hot day.

One of those windy summer days.

The air shimmered—

Blurred by the heat.

People stayed indoors.

Animals hugged the shade.

The first ominous sign

Was a small pillar of smoke.

Then the wind took it,

Carried it, spread it

Across paddocks and grasslands

And into the oil-rich gums.

Flames shot over fifty feet 

Into the aching air, racing

Through the canopy.

Ash and burning leaves,

Carried by the wind,

Took the fury ahead of the flames.

Houses gone.

Animals dead.

Lives lost.

Nightfall brought darkness

But no relief.

Just the constant threat

Of resurgence.

The next day—bright and clear,

It rained.

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1901 - The Free Man

 Image provided by ChatGPT

MLMM Monday Wordle #483 presents the following words for us to work with:

Heat, concern, rush, dug, imagine, elderly, provide, work, box, digital, drop, halt

The Free Man

It rings—

Incessantly.

A digital shackle

Generating urgency.

Rush! 

Concern! 

Response!

Pavlov would be proud.  Woof!

◊

Outside, away from the noise,

An elderly gardener

Drops seeds into grooves

In the recently dug soil.

He works with purpose,

Unbothered by the heat,

Tolerant of the flies,

Imagining his future crop

And the pleasure

It will provide.

◊

When his work done he calls a halt,

Puts his things into their box

And goes inside again.

He pours himself a drink.

The phone rings—

“Dad!  Are you okay?

You haven’t answered the phone!”

“That’s right” he replies.

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1900 - The Tinkerer

 

Image by ChatGPT

The Sunday Whirl presented these twelve words for us to use in a creative writing piece. 

judge tinker bounce loop heaven brutal end stream string track welcome drive

The Tinkerer

“It will come in handy, even if I never use it” 

– Ray Kennedy

So many boxes,

All with a label—

More aspirational 

Than functional.

He, of course, kept track

Of everything in them—

Nuts, bolts, loops of wire,

String, old clock parts,

Bits of kettles, washing machines,

Drives from phonographs,

Things that puzzled even him,

Some had come to a brutal end,

But were too useful to toss.

He never judged them.

Everything was welcome

And nothing was rejected.

Looking at the room

It was a grandfather’s heaven.

From it emerged

A stream of toys—

The new, the repaired,

The oddly familiar but not,

Things with noise and bounce,

Things to bring a glorious shine

To a young child’s eyes.

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