My grandmother’s antique flat iron makes a perfect door stop. It came with me to Mexico where it has stopped my bedroom door from slamming countless times when I make the mistake of opening sliders in two different parts of the house. It was so handy, that when I found another one in an antique store in Oaxaca, that I bought it to use on the bathroom door.
Click on photos to enlarge.
The Prompt for Ragtag Daily Prompt is door stop. Also for Thursday Doors.
Fleeced and Avenged
When first my antagonist burst upon the scene,
he was an enterprising human sales machine.
I was his favorite client, an accomplishment for sure—
innocent and gullible and open to the lure.
I had little experience foreshadowing the end.
No idea at all what lay waiting ’round the bend.
But I fear his achievement was unduly brief,
because Daddy called the sheriff, declaring him a thief.
Now he’s living in the jailhouse and his board and room is free.
He’s living on the county now—not on little old me!
Today’s prompts are achievement, foreshadow, antagonist, enterprise, burst and accomplishment. Image from Pinterest.
Undertow
Dreams conflate reality, making it surreal—
blend present, past and future until they all congeal.
Therein we twist reality into a tangled fray
that’s lived at night but vanishes in the light of day.
We blunder through their memory, half knowing what is real,
trying to sort out whether we know or sense or feel.
If we could just replay them like a picture show,
we might bring to the surface their mysterious undertow.
Prompts today are: only, twist, blunder, vanish and conflate.
Grandpa’s Solo Visits
It’s mysterious how the volume of our cereal goes down
whenever Grandpa chooses to visit in our town.
Without Grandma’s influence, his willpower is zilch
and so he takes this opportunity to filch
our Coco Puffs and Captain Crunch and other cereal,
for he likes a little crackling in his morning meal
along with all the sugar, ‘cuz he swears it puts some zip
in his faltering “get-along” and soothes his aching hip.
None of us tell Grandma, because once he has his fill,
when we all go out for ice cream, Grandpa picks up the bill!!!!
Prompts today are: volume, cereal, mysterious, filch, influence and crackling. Before you ask, this is pure fiction. Sadly, I never had a grandpa. They both died before I was born. If I’d had one, though, I wish he’d been like this grandpa.
No Pattern
To placate her parents, they said that she’d improve.
With praxis and time’s passage, she would slip into the groove.
They said that she would blossom like all the other girls,
subscribe to dolls and ruffles, to lipstick and to curls.
But she remained mysterious, preferring other things.
She asked for cars and baseballs instead of pretty rings.
She didn’t set the table or ask to dry the dishes.
To help her dad cut firewood fell more within her wishes.
No formula they set for her worked out for her because
stubbornly and true to self, she turned out who she was!
Prompt words are placate, subscribe, mysterious, praxis, table and blossom. Image by Reeney Jenkins on Unsplash.
Qualms
He’s preoccupied with thoughts of flight with no intent to stay.
Amid the fuss, his only thought? He has to run away.
What creates the tension? His need to keep at bay
the awareness that his nuptials are scheduled for today.
Does the groom have any doubts? I think, perhaps, he may.
His wedding vows have slipped his mind and stolen clean away.
When he’s asked the pertinent question, dare he utter, “Nay?”
The music starts and he walks down the aisle on feet of clay.
Prompts today are run, preoccupation, create, tense, nuptials, amid.
Image by Hermes Rivera on Unsplash.
Uphill Climb
Wind decries my progress on this uphill trail—
any ingress I might make impeded by the gale.
Moths whip against my shoulders. Birds soar far over head.
On days like this I feel as though I’d rather stay in bed.
But blessings spiral downward once the sun begins to rise
and another glorious day appears before my eyes.
Dull thoughts dry up in morning light and inspiration dawns—
all struggles of this waking up dispensed of with my yawns.
Prompt words today are decry, dull, wind, ingress, downward and moths.
Cycles
Gulches carved by raindrops, sandcastles swamped by waves.
Drip by drip, stalactites transgressing into caves.
The way of nature, changing things, sometimes recklessly.
Tearing down what man has built, always impartially.
The ennui of summer days give way to winter’s shout––
dumping drifts of snow and then blowing it about.
A fairy ring of mushrooms gives birth to what was fallen.
A single bumblebee extracting nectar, spreading pollen.
Prompt words today are gulch, ring, impartial, ennui, reckless and sandcastles. All images by me except for the photo of stalagmites and stalactites by Jakub Micuch on Unsplash.
Click on photos to enlarge and read commentary.
“To Do”
My networking agenda is getting rather full,
and I feel much-encumbered by its towering pull.
File after file lined up row on row,
I encounter my “to do” pile everywhere I go.
If I were more resourceful, I would have got them done,
Instead I follow other paths and thus accomplish none.
My list grows longer by the day, yet I ignore its flow
streaming off my desktop onto the floor below.
If I allow defection and follow unplanned whims,
wasting time in tidepools and swinging off of limbs,
what do I care if niftier friends do as their lists insist.
There’s more to life than what I’ve written up on any list.
Prompt words for today are : nifty, resourceful, network, list, encumbered, flow.
Click on photos to enlarge.
Dogs and Cats
My dogs are fun and gnarly and love to leap and play.
Often their wild antics are the climax of my day.
They love to solve dilemmas such as who is passing by
by raising choruses of barks and howls up to the sky.
But when it comes to relaxation, my kitties take the cake.
Their main activity, the patterns that their cattails make.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 