100 Word Wednesday: Fiction – Keep Me #amwriting #100WordWednesday

Thanks to Bikurgurl for hosting #100WordWednesdays.

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Credit: Bikurgurl

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Our hidden place, a hollow in rustled leaves, tangled roots, as the river meanders close. I inhale verdant greenery and twigs crunch underfoot, as we sit on tree stumps near the shore.

Some occasions, the river trickles and torrents. At times, it’s poured buckets, and the banks pass eerie, too close to our feet. Sometimes it’s a kiss on our runners as we wade.

In the gleaming sun, the dimple of your left cheek lifts. Your grey-blue eyes sparkle; my hands clench as we banter. They curl around bark, roughness masking my wish to touch your hair — a hint of gray you deny. Your laughter resonates, and we quip as usual. I ruin my white Adidas twirling them in dirt. As the river, your stories flow; but, you’re to far — and to near all at once.

I peer up, nip my lip. “Keep me.” Two words implored.

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©️Mandibelle16. (2019) All Rights Reserved.

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#OctPoWriMo Day 28/100 Word Wednesday: Poem – English Sonnet – “Eiffel Tower” #amwritingpoetry #100WordWednesday

For OctPoWriMo Day 28 the prompt is “a dilemma. A split path. A difficult choice. Maybe even a chasm or schism.” I’ve combined this prompt with Bikurgurl’s 100 Word Wednesday photo prompt.

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Credit: Paul Gaudriault via Unsplash

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Split as in — split as what? Split as lighted —

Towers as the Eiffel, divides night sky?

Split, you gleam luminescent sighted,

E’n from dim, breathless outer-space’s high.

Did you, majestic tower, split classes?

Levels of archaic demeaning,

Serf, merchants — the King’s ‘Tonne’ harassing.

No food, left starving; the tower stood gleaming.

A literal divide; noble heads rolled.

De Vince’s Masterpiece, a deep chasm?

Perhaps, it stands for more — collaboration?

Witless tyrants passed, yet the world spasms.

Eiffel bright, you’ve witnessed such great errors;

Hope people change — that we’re not all terrors.

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©️Mandibelle16. (2018) All Rights Reserved.

#OctPoWriMo Day 13/100 Word Wednesday: Poem – Blitz – “Pressure Engraved” #amwritingpoetry #100WordWordWednesday

For OctPoWriMo Day 13 the Prompt is If I We’re You. Also, I’m combining with 100 Word Wednesdays from Bikurgurl’s Photo Prompt.

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“Are there things you sometimes need to get off your chest? When was the last time you felt strongly that someone needed to see things from your point of view? I think this prompt lends itself perfectly to a Blitz Poem.”

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Credit: Alex Ilby

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Such pressure rising as the dim lake drowns

Putrid water invades mr lungs, crushes my chest

Chest choking salt-water terrified

Chest rasping with each tiny breath

Breath weighted with ocean filth

Breath that’s sticky, wet, toxic

Toxic fears cripple my legs, tire-out hands treading

Toxic fears of the half-dead: I’m gasping

Gasping, a dumbbell crushing my lungs

Gasping as I let out deep breathes to cleanse

Cleanse my spirit of skin shivering

Cleanse my heart of this stress-inducing love

Love that drowns and makes me whole

Love that lets me finally find

Find a blissful beach without monstrous waves

Find a warm place on the sand to sleep

Sleep, I yearn for it as banshees screech

Sleep, I beg for it as the predators howl

Howl as I quiver, biting my nails

Howl as my courage trickles away– I’m outwitted

Outwitted by breathless panic, desperate pain

Outwitted, the Minotaurs talons clawing my neck

Neck enwrapped with silken scarves choking

Neck bundled beneath feather-silk, dreams killing

Killing me softly, these life-altering responsibilities

Killing me softly, these rigid expectations

Expectations you hold of I so meek

Expectations you hold, not understanding —

Understanding I’m a pins width from crashing

Understanding how with difficulty, I have strived

Strived to be where I am

Strived to be myself and arise

Arise, but not to discover I’m disadvantaged

Arise, but not to ignore my intuitive doubts

Doubts as steel wool scratches

Doubts as I’m carried out by the tide in the storm’s silence

Silence, if only for a moment I can collapse

Silence, self-care to reforge my walls

Walls of back-breaking stone, tough alloys

Walls that keep the creatures harming at bay, to —

To keep me safe, crippled shoulders un-tensed

To keep my bastion strong, so I can lay me down

Lay me down without your vise-like grip engraved

Lay me down to recover, before I rise to respire and inhale

Gripping my hands, crescent marks engraved

No trembling stress shocking, only mountain air to inhale.

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©️Mandibelle16. (2018) All Rights Reserved.

#OctPoWriMo Day 14/100 Word Wednesday: Poem – Free Verse – “ A Safety Net” #amwritingpoetry #100WordWednesday

For OctPoWriMo Day 14 the Prompt is If I Were Me. Also, combing with Bikurgurl’s #100WordWednesday.

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“Ask yourself, “If I were me…” what would that look like? Who are you really? Have you lost yourself in being a mother, wife, girlfriend, boyfriend, husband, father?”

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Credit: Toa Heftiba via Unsplash

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Ask for the world, typify me,

Take advantage or carve my insides;

Pumpkin gutted.

I’ve chosen to take, the high road, to believe —

To have faith.

Not to see, things not there.

To reveal the truth,

Even though, curiosity may kill me.

But I’ll be damned if I don’t configure the puzzle pieces;

I’m a writer, I love a good mystery.

So, weave me a tale and I’ll unbind it thread by thread;

Only to see it’s trembling core, where light reveals the mayhem.

I wish for sunlight, carved tables with Zinfandel,

A place to write, you next to me;

No suffocation, no squeezing in my chest,

My liberty not at stake.

Complications, deviations, things I never expected;

Truth and disbelief collide as dynamite splashes.

I am the wind, I am the great detective,

No laudanum needed to dull the senses or to dream.

I am the Amazon and I am Alice,

Slipping back into Wonderland.

And I’ve discovered that beneath facades,

Can lie a beast with scales and teeth.

Slithering, slick, slime of rust,

Questionable creature, Adam’s fall —

Eve’s mistrust; and if I can’t have all the details,

Assemble words into some order,

My decisions might break not only I,

But lives lie in the balance.

One who needs, so I must give,

Because my Lord said give all you can;

And even if you’re wrong,

Heaven will be your table in the sunlight,

Where you can write and find tranquility:

The ambience of love.

If I Were Me,

Who knows,

For she is constantly moulded,

Her Creator’s hands her safety net.

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©️Mandibelle16. (2018) All Rights Reserved.

100 Word Wednesday: Fiction – No OverTime Necessary #amwriting #fiction #100WordWednesday

Thanks to Bikurgurl for hosting #100WordWednesday.

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Credit: Bikurgurl

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Greenwood’s The Angry Beaver quieted me as no place in town. It reminded me of home. Hockey was “the” sport and beavers were noble. The beer was imported Canadian — but not the moonshine most customers hid.

In Canada, we’re fond of beavers, and they’re no harmless rodent. Not when you’ve strode past their river valley dam with your curious dog. Alarmed beavers slap their tails, and snap their teeth. They swim as professional NHL’ers skate, and won’t think twice about fighting.

Danny, the bar owner’s Doberman, was never the same after a beaver ‘battle-royal’. A jersey was pulled over his head when the beaver dove with Danny into the lake. He headed for shore; had Danny fought, the beaver would’ve destroyed him. No OT necessary.

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“I am Canadian” – Molson Beaver Attack Commercial

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©Mandibelle16.(2018). All Rights Reserved.

100 Word Wednesdays/Sunday Writing Prompt: Poem – Decuaine – “No More Rough Currents” #amwriting #poetry #100WordWednesday #MLMM

Thanks to Bikurgurl for hosting #100WordWednesdays and also thanks to Michael of MindLoveMisery’s Menagerie for hosting a Sunday Writing Prompt based on a Watery theme and one of the topics: Up the creek without a paddle, Wading Upstream, The River Flowing Up a Hill, and When the Fish Stop Biting.

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Credit: @Bikurgurl

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Caramel and cantaloupe burn white,

The sun setting, in fiery depths it gleams.

We struggle ‘gainst the current, it’s our plight,

A journey many take wading upstream.

We fight not to slip, sweat-stained body’s heave,

Then, deltas and islands draw near, take form.

In felicitous breezes, drenched clothes dry clean,

Acrid earth bears us, we tremble on shore.

Caramel, Bellini sky’s, rain pours —

We clasp tight hands waiting for the ‘morrow.

*****

Another night in the grit of sands touch,

We dream of skyscrapers, our souls believe;

We’re past the current, our fingers bold clutch,

Memories, hopes, the warmth of home found breathes.

No more suffering in past with disease.

A butterscotch sky, fresh peaches, tall palms —

The sun rises — a gift, fresh view point now gleaned.

The beach busies, children run as waves fall,

Tumbling sandcastles near shores, claiming walls;

The peace of our Home, no rough currents, at all.

*****

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©Mandibelle16.(2018) All Rights Reserved.

#NaPoWriMo Day 26/100 Word Wednesday: Poem – Free Verse – “The Hawaiian Dreamscape” #amwriting #poetry #100WordWednesday

For NaPoWriMo Day 26, the Prompt is: “to write a poem that includes images that engage all five senses. Try to be as concrete and exact as possible with the “feel” of what the poem invites the reader to see, smell, touch, taste and hear.” I’m combining with Bikurgurl’s Week 67 for #100WordWednesdays.

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Credit: Bikurgurl

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Hibiscus flowers in tawny-hair;

A red bloom fastened in the twilight,

Beneath marmalade sky’s ablaze,

Or raspberry fires in the morning.

Tempting Margaritas dosed,

You’d swear you’d imagined ghosts;

One drink too many —

You’ll order four more.

Skirts of grass woven,

From foliage thick and lush.

The beat of drums pounding,

As belly-dancing interrupts;

The Ukulele’ s strum echoes,

A language unknown;

A beauty in not knowing.

As waves blast the sand,

The surf rises cerulean.

And miles out a creature whirls,

His flip an act of showmanship.

And sweet drinks ingested,

Carry lotus flowers, and in-depth conversation,

On topics no one recalls hereafter.

A language of islands,

Of salt air, the musk of giant fish;

And underneath lies pink-tangerine reefs.

Where fish of rainbows dart in and out,

In an immensity of sizes and looks.

Swimming into shore,

Basking in warm salted-water,

Head beneath waves,

One blinding sting, and another.

For too soon comes home,

Where the world is gray-toned;

It never alights with Hibiscus — red or fuchsia.

No purple orchids,

No waves that soothe the soul.

No greenery or fruit so sweet,

Pineapples and mangos,

Slices of heaven.

Where the tides create summer dreams.

When mornings with sunlight cascades,

Into a rhythm no other place knows.

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©Mandibelle16. (2018) All Rights Reserved.

#NaPoWriMo Day 23/ 100 Word Wednesday: Poem – Free Verse – “Nightly Rebirth” #amwriting #poetry #100WordWednesday

For NaPoWriMo Day 23 the prompt is: Today, is to “write a poem based in sound. The poem, for example, could incorporate overheard language. Perhaps it could incorporate a song lyric in some way, or language from something often heard spoken aloud.”

I’m combining with #100WordWednesday Week 68 by Bikurgurl.

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Credit: Bikurgurl

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The lights flick on tonight,

They echo amidst the streets.

Cars trailing exhaust as rubber grinds,

Zooming off into the night,

Stars blaring, their peacefulness overpowered by —

Flashing lights and strong voices.

Mixed together, some a cacophony,

Some a flowing symphony.

Girls laughing in the bathroom,

Slicking on gloss, smacking their lips.

Men’s voices rumble, lined up at the bar,

Gruff with meaningless discussion,

Jokes interspersed with loud laughter.

Glasses clink and drinks rush,

Pouring cranberry juice and vodka,

A whizz of ginger ale popping;

Scotch on the rocks knocking,

The suck of lemons from tequila shots.

Hoots, cheers, and whistles,

The whoosh of the puck in the net,

A slap-shot slams, a snapshot of time clicks.

Others banter, search for twilight patios,

Voices a “Mmmm,” as steak’s devoured.

Trendy appetizers, the crack of lobster shells.

Drinks raised ‘Slante,’ and with the beat,

The thump of the music a steady rhythm,

A driven rap-beat, a sonorous divas addition,

Soft-heated lyrics, a hopeful passage;

A shiver and, “Ah,” as favorite songs roll on.

The DJ keeps playing,

Sweat-slicked bodies brush past each other,

Hands sweep past bodies, and nobody cares,

In the sultry muggy air inside,

Or the warm sweet-air outside, night’s sigh.

No one can hear,

But the glimmer of voices are never hushed;

On the streets lit up,

Lights reviving a city, a nightly rebirth.

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©Mandibelle16. (2017) All Rights Reserved.

#NaPoWriMo Day 8/100 Word Wednesdays: Poem – Quadrille – “The Apple Tree” #amwriting #poetry #100WordWednesdays

For Day 8 NaPoWriMo the prompt is: “write poems in which mysterious and magical things occur. Feel free to incorporate crystal balls, fauns, lightning storms, or whatever seems fierce and free and strange. Also, thanks to Bikurgurl for hosting #100WordWednesdays from March 14, 2018.

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Credit: Annie Sprat via Unsplash

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In our yard,

An apple tree,

Not forbidden.

Branches grafted,

Enchanted apples.

Not with poisons;

But, healing charm.

Our family left,

Apple’s retreated.

The new owner,

Destroyed innocent magic.

Now I know,

Why he’s cursed;

While in our garden

Nature’s verdant.

In haste,

Self-imposed drought,

His yard —

A desert weeping.

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©Mandibelle16.(2017) All Rights Reserved.

#NaPoWriMo Day 3/100 Word Wednesday: Poem – Free Verse – “Devouring Candy Up High” #poetry #amwriting #MLMM

For NaPoWriMo Day 3, the poetry Prompt is: Today, we challenge you to try this out yourself by writing a list poem in which all the items are made-up names. If band names don’t inspire, how about a list of titles for romantic novels?

Thanks also to Bikurgurl for hosting #100WordWednesday Week 61.

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Credit: Yeshi Kangrang

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M&M’s, Hubba-Bubba Gum, Gummy Bears, and Sour Patch kids,

Reese’s Pieces Peanut-Butter Cups, devoured with Junior Mints.

KitKat bars, ‘Oh Henry bars, Bubble-Gum tape, and sugar-filled Pixie Sticks,

Aero, Fuzzy Peaches, Pop Rocks, and Sour Worms, all eaten.

You might prefer Jelly Worms, while I suck on Sour Soothers,

While I lick my fingers after Sour Skittles and Smarties.

Peanut M&M’s, Snickers, Mar’s Bars, Mr. Big’s —

I like only the first and the last.

Three Musketeers, Slurpies from 7-11, Trident gum in coffee or pineapple,

Lick-A-Maid, Red Liquorice, Werther’s originals, Cow Pies, and I’ve tried them all.

Gummy Frogs, Raspberry Gummies, Lemon Drops, Chocolate Rosettes, and RootBeer Candy Sticks.

Mint Melties, Peppermint Patties, Sea Shell Chocolates, Macaroons, and Hershey’s Dark- Almond,

Lays’ Barbecue-Chips, Hostess Dill-Pickle chips too.

Many treats, each and every one I’ve tried.

I once ate them atop this towering building,

As the sunset with cascading rainbow clouds flashed — as I ate from my stash.

But, that was years ago,

Today I know, I must wisely choose,

Only the finest will I devour — or my youthful body will ’round.’

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©️Mandibelle16. (2018) All Rights Reserved.