I wanted to avoid pumpkins and witches
So I thought, why not try an orange cat with whiskers?
It’s still on point
(With some liberal twitches)
Here we go with my October picture.
She left her home
Boarded the final bus
She couldn’t look back
Her eyes … wet.
She settled in a small town
Took a job in a diner
She worked two shifts
Her life … sweaty.
She signed up for school
She needed better prospects
She struggled to juggle
Her nights … teary.
She graduated
She married
She settled down some.
She moved
She had kids
She wanted for nothing.
She volunteered at church
She bookclubbed with the ladies
She longed for her old country
Her heart … clammy.
He started working later
They left for college
She felt her home had left her
Her pillow … damp.
RAGTAG DAILY PROMPT ~ DAMP
She broke a vase
The shriek was loud
She broke his heart
The silence was deafening.
He forgot his homework
He wrote 50 lines
He forgot his vows
He rewrote familial lines.
He stole a bicycle
His mother’s smack stung
He stole her innocence
His community’s curses clung.
She left home for work
She worried about home
She left work for home
She worried about work.
He drank to forget
He drowned in regret.
She stifled her dreams
Guilt drowned her instead.
—————-
DAILY PROMPT ~ GUILTY
Do you jiggle when you giggle?
Do you fist pump when you chortle?
Do you whack your companion when you guffaw?
Do you cackle till you hiccup?
Do your eyes crinkle when you chuckle?
Do you wipe spittle when you titter?
Does your bark scare the pigeons?
Does your bray cause dogs to bark?
If laughter is the best medicine,
Tell me –
Why does it split your sides?
And then put you in stitches?
—————
DAILY PROMPT ~ LAUGHTER
There’s the thin green line
That begins at the gutter
And runs down the wall.
No plumber or contractor ever detected its origin.
So it stays
As a scar on the weathered facade.
There’s the crooked copper line
That starts at the base of the bathtub faucet
And worms itself stubbornly into the drainage hole.
No stain remover or bleach ever made a difference.
So no one uses the tub
With its abberation against the snowy enamel.
There’s the terra cotta line
That seeps from under the dragon pot
And bleeds its way into the neighbour’s plot.
No patching with fresh soil ever fills the hardened trough.
So the neighbours have called a truce
Over this border without a fence.
There’re the pale silvery lines
That weep from beneath closed lids
And trickle down facial planes.
No medicine will heal the wounds.
So hope waits
For belief to touch the soul.
————–
DAILY PROMPT ~ RIVULET
Gone are the days of thirst and heat.
Long lost is the warmth of a noon-day beach.
iPods, iPads, even I, Tonya repeatedly re-visited.
Marshmallow toasties,
Mum’s backyard campfires,
Evenings now spent just wishing to perspire.
“Relax!” springs forth from the exhuberant young miss. “I’m back!”
… finally!
————–
DAILY PROMPT ~ GLIMMER
You saunter by each weekday
In your suit and backpack.
Talking on your mobile
Starbucks in hand.
You sail by each weekend
In your hipster clothes and scooter
Plugged in, singing
Someplace to go.
You struggle by each evening
Every step an effort
A victory against debilitation
Survival of the fittest.
You sashay by each Thursday
In your designer workout gear
Smiling at your phone
Sun salutations await.
You stroll by every Tuesday and Friday
Okay, sometimes you jog
Eyes ever alert
Stylish dogs on leashes.
You strut by every daylight hour
In your feathery finery
Sometimes you coo
Sometimes you poo.
You stomp by every Wednesday
In your too-tight uniform
You hate your job, don’t you?
Scowling won’t make it better.
I see you all
I see more than I should.
I am not invisible.
It is you who do not see.
————–
DAILY PROMPT ~ INVISIBLE
Where were you last night?
And the night before?
What is this strange scent?
Whose glove is this by the door?
Where were you last weekend?
Why didn’t you answer my call?
Was it you that made the hinge squeak at 5?
You know, from the door in the hall?
What’s this red petal on your collar?
What’s this stain on your coat?
What have you been up to?
What’s this smudge on your throat?
You really are a wandering minstrel
You tiny rescued scoundrel
You really need to mend your ways
Because I’ll follow you out one day.
————-
DAILY PROMPT ~ SUSPICIOUS
