1911 - Painted into a Corner

 

Image nicked from the internet

dVerse Poet's invites us to use some butterfly names in a writing piece.

Painted into a Corner.

He looked at the brochure—

Glumly, quite dejected.

He was ready to give up.

All he wanted to do 

Was paint his bedroom.

In front of him

Was a multi-page matrix

Of coloured squares,

Each neatly labelled.

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Appalachian azure

Autumn leaf

Clipper

Clouded yellow

Crimson Patch

Duke of Burgundy

Fatal Metalmark

Fiery skipper

Gatekeeper

Golden birdwing

Golden Hairstreak

Green marble

Large Tortoiseshell

Lustrous copper

Miami Blue

Monarch

Mourning Cloak

Orange Sulphur

Painted Lady

Peacock

Pine Satyr

Rice paper

Rusty-tipped page

Silver Emperor

Silver-banded Hairstreak

Small Wood nymph

Sonoran Blue

Speckled wood

Spring white

Velvet rose

Wandering skipper

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"I only wanted 'beige'".

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1910 - Pastorale

 

 Image by ChatGPT

MLMM Monday Wordle #488 
presents the following words for us to work with:

light, cast, street, tickle, sensitive, view, cool, pigeon, dance, attract, evening, glow

Pastorale

Warm and amber,

The evening light streamed 

Low through the plaza,

Through the tables,

Through the legs,

Through the pigeons,

Drenching everything

In a golden glow

As if bathed in honey.

It tickled the lavender flowers,

And drew long, dancing shadows 

From the bobbing pigeons.

Locals came and gathered

To bask in the fading day,

Drinking wine or coffee,

Dunking biscotti,

Sharing their lives.

Young children danced,

Revelling in the evening warmth.

The pigeons, always sensitive

To rowdy children,

Viewed them with cool disdain—

At a distance.

Whatever was happening elsewhere—

There was peace here.

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1909 - A Different Space

 

Image by ChatGPT

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

wild cross left staff last split burial grind space land room hood

Disclaimer: I could no space for grind that didn't sound forced.

A Different Space

The burial was over.

The last casserole

Had been left

On the doorstep.

The phone was quiet.

The walking staff 

Was in the corner.

The hood, gloves and scarf

Hung behind the door.

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His life had been split

Into before and after,

Crossing between

Two different lands.

This land, this second land,

Is uncharted, undreamed of.

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One life eventually ends 

But life itself goes on.

Like a new garden bed

Waiting for attention,

It has a chance to renew.

Patiently tended,

Given the room to grow,

It blossoms—

Unexpectedly.

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1908 - The Place

 Image by ChatGPT

MLMM Monday Wordle #487 
presents the following words for us to work with:

cheers, choir, grand, ill, man, place, reserved, rest, stool, together, turn, twinkle.

Up front confession: I didn't use choir or twinkle.  
 

 

The Place

 Dedicated to the lovely Linco Li.

An accountant,

In France,

With a spreadsheet

And ergonomic stool,

Who wished him no ill,

But no longer needed him

In his grand scheme

Of rows and columns,

Decided it was his turn

And he was “let go”.

Être remercié—

To be thanked.

 

◊

 

New staff were shown

Every desk—

Except one.

“That one’s taken.

Take one of the rest”.

The man who had sat in that place

Was not there now.

But he could be.

 

◊

 

So, she reserved his desk.

She kept it clean.

And, should he return—

It was ready for him,

There would be cheers.

And cake.

And they could sit,

Quietly,

Side by side,

Working together 

Again.

 

 ◊

 

 

1907 - Fallow

 

Image by ChatGPT

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

home world denied bees pleas forgotten folklore wonder strum fallow sigh sky

Fallow

The sky was clear,

A gentle wind blew—

Strumming the trees,

Rustling the grasses.

Bees, ants, and butterflies

Went about their business.

Birds flitted from tree to tree.

Animals grazed at ease—

The occasional disagreement

Over mates or territory

But calmly and normally.

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Man, as was his wont, denied

that the world, his home,

Was at risk of collapse.

Pleas for him to be aware

Went unacknowledged

And were quickly forgotten.

Eventually, man faded away.

The planet gave no sigh of regret.

He became the folklore of the herds,

Of the flocks and of the schools—

The inheritors of the wonders

That he could not see.

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1906 - The Reason

 

MLMM Monday Wordle #486 presents the following words for us to work with:

change, known, fault, seen, money, silence, flowers, excited, irritated, hand, table, kept

The Reason

“You don’t buy flowers anymore.”
Silence.

“You don’t seem excited to see me anymore.”
Silence.

“You have changed, you're not the same anymore.”
Silence.

“You seem irritated, annoyed nowadays.”
Silence.

“Do you think it is all my fault?”
Silence.

“I’ve kept meals on the table…”
Silence.

“I’ve seen that we have enough money…”
Silence.

“It seems to be getting out of hand.”
Silence.

“I’ve never known you to be this quiet.”
Silence.

“It's nearly a year since you died.”
Silence.

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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…”

◊

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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