#99Word Stories; Stone Stacking

/ D. Avery @shiftnshake / 16 Comments

The June 6, 2022 story challenge from Charli Mills at Carrot Ranch is to: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story that features stone-stacking. How does the activity fit into a story? Who is involved? What is the tone? Do the stones have special meaning? Go where the prompt leads! Submit at Carrot Ranch by June 11, 2022.

History Stacked Against Us by D. Avery    

“I’m not sure yet what I’ll do with these larger stones.”

“I have no idea what you’re going to do with any of these rocks Gramps.”

“Getting ready. These here? Perfect for chucking by hand. These ones? They’ll fit in a slingshot.”

“Oh. Then how about a catapult for the larger ones? Gramps, are you feuding with Mr. Nelson again?”

“No, that’s done.”

“Then why the piles of stones?”

“You’ve heard of World War I?”

“Yes, and I’ve heard of World War II. What’s that got to do with you stacking rocks?”

“I’m getting ready for World War IV.”

Be sure to go to Carrot Ranch to read the complete ” Memorial” collection from last week. And there’s always the Ranch Yarns with Kid and Pal’s responses HERE.

#SixSentenceStories; Key

/ D. Avery @shiftnshake / 37 Comments

The word this week from GirlieontheEDGE, our Six Sentence Story hostess, is “key”.

Be sure to go to the LINKUP to enter your own Six Sentences and to read and comment on other stories.

Consensus Is Key To A Happy Home by D. Avery

“Would you agree that this neighborhood is starting to look rough and perhaps we should begin locking our doors again when we’re away from home, providing we can think of a good place to hide a key?”

“Agreed, but as long as we have an actual dog, please, let’s not try that fake poop hide-a-key thing again.”

“Agreed, that was too tricky, but under the welcome mat is too obvious, practically an invitation to trespass.”

“Agreed, but somewhere on our property are at least a half dozen keys that are so well hidden neither one of us has been able to find them.”

“Well, we better find one of them, for it seems we are locked out!”

“Agreed, but would you agree that we might be lost, for now I’m fairly certain this is not our house.”

#99Word Stories; Memorial

/ D. Avery @shiftnshake / 16 Comments

The May 30, 2022 story challenge from Charli Mills at Carrot Ranch is to: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story behind a memorial. Is it a structure, plaque, or something else? What does it seek to remind those who view it? Go where the prompt leads!

Remembering by D. Avery    

“Shut that fucking TV off!”

“Swear like that again I’ll shut you off.”

But the bartender pointed the remote and the news was replaced by a baseball game.

“Better?”

“Eh.”

Baseball wasn’t much better than the news. She signaled for another drink.

Her son liked baseball. Made the high school team. Dreamed of the majors.

“Stupid kids,” she said.

“What?”

“The news. Building a memorial.”

“Why not?”

“Doesn’t change a damn thing. Over two decades and nothing’s changed.”

Nothing, she thought, except dozens more parents were suffering like her from relentless grief, of dreams shot down with their children.

Be sure to go to Carrot Ranch to read the complete “Well’s Gone Dry” collection from last week. And there’s always the Ranch Yarns with Kid and Pal’s responses HERE.

#SixSentenceStories; Edge

/ D. Avery @shiftnshake / 7 Comments

The word this week from GirlieontheEDGE, our Six Sentence Story hostess, is “edge”. I have a lot going on, feeling a little on edge, so am going to cheat. That is, I will not present any new story or poem. I know I’ve gone to edges before for Six Sentence Stories and other prompts;

https://shiftnshake.wordpress.com/2020/07/23/write-on-sixsentencestory/
https://shiftnshake.wordpress.com/2018/09/02/at-the-edge/
https://shiftnshake.wordpress.com/2018/05/09/reverberations/

For this prompt I am going to post Six Sentences that were originally posted as 99 words for Carrot Ranch. Be sure to go to the LINKUP to enter your own Six Sentences and to read and comment on other stories.

Contemplating Edges by D. Avery

Seeking Earth’s edges, pressing on, thrusting ahead, seeking new frontiers, always further on.

Heroic?

Westward expansion told as a flexible line; looping progression across the map page, across the ages, across the ever-changing landscape. Edges reached, breached and surpassed— shoreline, rivers, mountain ranges, seas of grass, more mountain ranges, deserts, rivers, shoreline; compressed, flattened, documented.

Whose country tis of thee?

Edges of encounter; that line of expansion entangling, ensnaring, diminishing, destroying; slicing the multifaceted beauty of each encountered edge, razing cultures, razing ecosystems.

If only edges were navigated as holy spaces of contemplation, opportunities for true expansion, precipitant of Potential.

#SixSentenceStories; Fluid

/ D. Avery @shiftnshake / 23 Comments

A Six Sentence Story is a story told in exactly six sentences. It could also be a six lined or six stanza poem; it could be a soc, a bots, or creative non-fiction. This week’s prompt word, provided by our hostess Denise, at GirlieontheEdge is “fluid“. This is a double, yeah, a 12-pac, featuring two favorite characters.

Monitoring by D. Avery

“Marge Small, what is so awfully wrong underneath that car hood that you slammed it shut, cursing a blue streak all the while?”

“What’s wrong, Ilene, is that there shouldn’t be anything wrong, but there is something totally wrong, because this engine is ruined, all because some dumbasses can’t even be bothered to check their fluids!”

“Hey, don’t yell at me, I’ve been checking my own fluids since I first laid eyes on a dipstick.”

“Uh-huh; let me wash up and we’ll join Nard and the guys at the bar. Your blue eyes indicate you’re a quart low.”

“And your brown eyes indicate that you’re full of it.”

Marge drummed the steering wheel, driving in silence.  

“Marge, it’s just a car. And it wasn’t your fault, there was nothing you could do.”

“My father taught me to check engine fluids when I was just a little girl,” Marge said, still staring straight ahead. “He showed me how to check the old oil for grit, gunk, metal filings; he knew the importance of monitoring fluids… Ilene, when I saw him in that hospital bed, bags of fluids dripping into him, them testing his blood for this that and the other… And then them telling me there was nothing they could do, he’d let it go too long…

Ilene sat in the truck with her friend until Marge was ready to join the guys inside at the bar.

#99Word Stories; Well’s Gone Dry

/ D. Avery @shiftnshake / 19 Comments

The May 23, 2022, story challenge from Charli Mills at Carrot Ranch is to: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story using the phrase “well’s gone dry.” Is it a real well or a metaphorical well? Why is it dry? What is the consequence and to whom? Go where the prompt leads! Submit at Carrot Ranch by May 28, 2022.

My response is a Double Ennead, a syllabic poetry form created by Colleen Cheseboro. A Double Ennead usually doesn’t rhyme but I played with a rhyme scheme.

Well’s Gone Dry by D. Avery      

in wind-stormed time of drought

nothing shines but rust

silt and sand swirled colors of the silent muse

faded promise wrung out

sunbaked bone and dust

in hard times, hard to trust

to shake fear and doubt

to beseech again and again be refused

one must do as one must

seeding one’s own clouds

with faith of rooting sprouts

breaking through the crust 

dream of green catching glistening drops of dew

if muse gasps, one must shout

wake up dreams long hushed

Be sure to go to Carrot Ranch to read the complete “Mom Selfies” collection from last week. And there’s always the Ranch Yarns with Kid and Pal’s responses HERE.

#PicoftheWeek; My Happy Place

/ D. Avery @shiftnshake / 4 Comments
all roads led me home
among familiar creatures
crossing to safety

For Maria Antonia‘s #picoftheweek photo challenge I am crossing off the “My Happy Place” square on the bingo sheet. For the first time in five weeks the picture is from my back yard, and for me is a pleasant reminder of springs past. I’ve always enjoyed these juvenile Eastern Newts, or red efts.

Check out Maria’s  #2022picoftheweek to see how you can participate in this fun challenge using the bingo sheet as a prompt.

#SixSentenceStories; Detour

/ D. Avery @shiftnshake / 33 Comments

A Six Sentence Story is a story told in exactly six sentences. It could also be a six lined or six stanza poem; it could be a soc, a bots, or creative non-fiction. This week’s prompt word, provided by our hostess Denise, at GirlieOntheEdge, is “detour“.

Six Sentence Detour

She didn’t feel up to a dinner party, not on the very day she finally was back in her own home, but for this hostess she would make an effort, would throw together a six-bean salad for the potluck buffet, would make an appearance, would at least be seen on the scene before ducking out and retreating to reflect on her long strange detour.

For she wasn’t yet ready to talk about where she’d been and the beautiful, austere lands she’d seen— damaged yet enduring lands that, despite dust storms, droughts, wildfires, and floods, still managed to inspire a sense of wonder and a modicum of hope.

She’d found some people living in those lands to also admire for their endurance and adaptability, but mostly the trip had made her weary and wary of the lands’ people, not of those many she’d seen that didn’t have a meal, let alone a home, but of the many more that looked the other way, that tossed blame instead of help or empathy.

And now a dinner party?

Well, these gathered people with their stories, as colorful, as sweet and sour as her proffered salad, might be good medicine for her subdued mood. No more detours— time to break bread at the Bistro, with its down-home cooking, served with all the sixin’s.