The Uncommon Cold

A double enead poem (99 syllables in 3 stanzas of 6/5/11/6/5) written for this Carrot Ranch challenge with accompanying photo. The bleak uncommon cold of northern winters speaks not to warmer Southern Hemisphereans (well, bar Antarctica and kitsch Christmas cards). If I was there today I’d want to leave soon and sit by a fire …

If the cap fits

This 100 word piece was written for this photo prompt for Rochelle's Friday Fictioneers © Jan Wayne Fields “Hey, Talofa. I’ll stay here but you go on a head.’ ‘Shut up, Malo.’ ‘Hey, Islander 3, I hear that little chapeau across the street took you down a peg or two.’ ‘Shut up, Malo.’ ‘Hey, Tonga …

Alien snow shovels peeking in the window

This piece was written for a photo prompt on the Friday Fictioneers blog  ‘So, where are these humans?’ ‘I don’t know. They were here yesterday!’ ‘What were they doing?’ ‘They were putting things in the hole at the top of their bodies that they use to communicate.’ ‘That’s really weird. If we put things in …

The immortal sailor

This 100 word piece was written using the photo prompt below (photo supplied by Jeff Arnold) for Friday Fictioneers It had taken seven years for him to complete his glass-encased diorama from his wheelchair. Every evening and most days would be spent working with tiny tools and a high-powered magnifying glass, to re-create the seaside …

Cheepskates (with apologies to the immortal Lennie)

This piece was written for this week's Flash Fiction 100 word challenge, with this photo from Douglas M. MacIlroy as a prompt. Just because I’m like a bird on a wire (well, actually, sometimes I am, except when there isn’t one, and then I’m wireless and then I get drunk and sing in a midnight …

My car’s in pole position

This my response to this week's Friday Fictioneers challenge to write 100 words about this pic provided by J. Hardy Carroll. Did you lock the car? Of course I did. How can you be so sure. Do you see the ‘Open’ sign lit up?  No So that means it’s locked. Did you have to park …

Swiping our money

This week's photo prompt (below) from Friday Fictioneers   ‘Blatant revenue raising!’ ‘What do you mean?’ ‘Who mostly uses this park?’ ‘Well, mostly us older folk, I guess.’ ‘Exactly!’ ‘And who else?’ ‘Well, there’s mothers with young children …’ ‘… who never want to go before they go but need to go the minute they …

Right-wing extremist

This 100 word piece was written for the Friday Fictioneers  photo prompt below.   ‘What’s with your new display. It’s a little one-sided, isn’t it?’ ‘It’s symbolic of my political views.’ ‘How so?’ ‘Do you see any red there left of centre?’ ‘Now that you mention it ….’ ‘No tomatoes, no pinko apples, no anti-capitalist …

Candles snuffed out

This 100 word piece was written for Friday Fictioneers with this photo as the prompt.   The opening of ‘Mme. Tussaud’s – The Musical’ was billed as a turning point in the history of the musical theatre but the cognoscenti, noticeable by their absence from the private boxes, begged to differ and the critics were …

A fishy lens

Photo: Dawn Miller This is my 100 word response to this week's Friday Fictioneers picture prompt.   Why aren’t you just happy to swim in the pond like all of us other fish? What’s the point of having an inbuilt fish-eye lens if you’re not going to take pictures? Inbuilt fish, gefilte fish. A load …