1375 - The Canal Dweller

 Image by ChatGPT

Elephant's Child presents 5-10 words for us to use some or all in a creative writing piece.  

This week's words are:

Elbows, Imagine, Canal, Heavily, Population, Mocked, Months, Annex, Support, Casino, Pink

The Canal Dweller

He has lived there

For many months now.

Gently bobbing up and down

With the wake of passing boats.

Away from the population 

That thrives on shops,

Sports arenas, and casinos.

His craft is a personal annex

To the more inhabited centres.

Not mocked but not engaged,

He provides his own support

And is the better for it.

There is an inner peace 

to be found on the water.

Another day draws to an end—

The sky is orange and pink,

The birds are heading home.

He rests on his elbows,

Taking it all in, savouring,

And can’t imagine anything better.

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1374 - The Request

 

Image by ChatGPT

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

 

This week's words are:

underworld, realm, beasts, raze, maps, storytellers, saints, emeralds, hood, voices, serpent, mist

The Request

A traveller, tall, intense,

Wearing a hooded cape,

Stands looking at the vessel.

The ship’s captain waits.

The traveller turns to him and speaks:

Traveller

I wish to go to that land

Recounted by the storytellers.

Will you take me?

Captain

There be dragons Sir,

With eyes flickering like emeralds

And with a thick fiery breath

That can raze whole villages.

Traveller.

I fear no dragon.

Will you take me?

Captain

And serpents, and fierce beasts

Beyond you imagination…

Traveller

I do not expect saints

Nor do I fear devils singing 

With the voices of Ulysses’ sirens.

Will you take me?

Captain

It is realm of mists, of tormented souls,

Beyond the edge of our maps.

An evil and a diabolical place

Worse than the underworld 

Of Hades and Cerberus.

Traveller

So I have been told.

Will you take me?

Captain

No.

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1373 - Drylands

 

Image by ChatGPT

Elephant's Child presents 5-10 words for us to use some or all in a creative writing piece.  

This week's words are:

Beating, Evidence, Remaining, Temperature, Stench, Excessive, Oppressive, Exposure, Dryland, Cover, Pink

Drylands

He stands: still, sombre.

Looking at the landscape

That lies parched and cracked;

Landscape that was once green,

Was once lush, was once supportive.

Now the sun is beating down—

Relentless, oppressive, piercing

His heart, his soul, his land.

The wind carries the stench

Of dead sheep.  His life.

And yet, despite all the exposure

He says there is no evidence,

“Just like the drought of ‘44” he says.

The temperature climbs,

Crows eat his dead sheep.

When there is nothing remaining

Will he change his mind?

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1372 - Idle Thoughts

 

Image by ChatGPT

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

 

This week's words are:

chain, justify, sloshing, works, clatters, choice, sirens, distant, crows, raw, puzzle, short

Idle Thoughts

"The best cure for insomnia is to get a lot of sleep." -

 W.C. Fields 

It’s 1am.  Wide awake.

Counting a chain of sheep.

Breathe in. Hold. Breathe out.

Warm milk. Walnuts. Chamomile.

Gentle music.  No Wagner.

Wide awake.  Nothing works.

It’s 2am.  Wide awake.

Time, they say, flies

When you are having fun.

I’m not enjoying this.

Idle thoughts are sloshing,

Tumbling, churning.

It’s 3am.  Wide awake.

Distant chimes of the clock.

Sirens in the distance—

Bad morning for someone?

Maybe it’s a birth.  Hope so.

A puzzle to add to the mix.

It’s 4am.  Wide awake.

A magpie practices its chords.

Shouldn’t it be asleep?

Wonder if crows practice?

Probably there is no need to,

Not all that melodic really.

It’s 5am.  Wide awake.

Clatters from the street.

The rubbish trucks passing

Funny choice of a job.

Maybe not a choice.

Short end of life’s stick.

It’s 6am.  Wide awake.

Pondering the universe.

The universe ignores me.

The brain does too. Traitor.

The sun is getting up.

Reluctantly, I do too.

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1371 - Sock and Awe

 

Sandy presented the prompt: "A Magical Piece of Clothing".

Research has shown that people feel more naked if not completely naked.

That's magical.

Sock and Awe.

There's a psychological maxim that shocks:

It's the 'how naked do you feel?' paradox.

While you feel quite exposed

When not wearing clothes

You feel even more so just wearing socks.

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An aside: ChatGPT wouldn't draw me two legs with red ankle socks

as the implied nudity breached it's morality algorithm.

Good old Google search to the rescue.

1370 - The Book

 

Image by ChatGPT

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

 

This week's words are:

grief, scarf, cradle, list, growl, swaying, sky, force, electricity, hazy, charm, secrets

The Book

The scarf is old and faded.
The box within its folds
Shiny with oriental lacquer
Bearing unfamiliar symbols.

The book within the box
Is cradled in a velvet-lined
Close fitting protective recess.
It looks new and untouched.

The writing within it is like lists,
Written in a strange script.
Are they recipes?  Charms?
Prayers to an unknown god?

He works for weeks, at night,
Until the hazy veil is lifted
And the book’s deep secrets
Are laid bare before him.

◊

He stands upright beneath
A turbulent, unsettled sky.
The clouds growl and tumble,
They crackle with electricity.

The trees creak and groan,
Swaying with the tempest
That is champing for the release
Of the force of the book.

The book, heavy in his hand,
Seems to also growl and snarl—
Waiting with ill-concealed impatience
To fulfil its grief-laden destiny.

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