To The Naga’s Protection

April 22, 2023April 23, 2023Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Things Kids Say, Writing Tags: 100WordChallenge, Difficult decisions, Family, Friday Fictioneers, grandparents, Gratitude, Loss, love, New Beginnings, Thailand 26 Comments

“The Naga will protect you, Laang Chaai.”

“Yes, Yaai,” the boy swallowed tears and nodded to his grandmother. Even at his tender age he knew that his Yaai’s love would not be enough. Her body bent over like a broken bamboo, the shape of rice-paddy work even with no paddy to bend over.

The wrinkled hand touched boy’s head, devastated to give up her laang chaai. His mother had died in childbirth, yet she never thought of her grandson as an orphan. Till today.

The monks will raise him now.

“Khawp khun khrap” the boy bowed, palms together over heart.

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

Photo prompt: © David Stewart

Glossary:

Naga – semi-divine dragon-serpents in Thai culture which possess supernatural powers and are the patrons of water

Laang Chaai – grandson

Yaai – grandmother

khawp khun khrap – thank you (when said by male)

To Life

March 6, 2023Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Good stuff!, Life and love, Meditations, Muse and Flow, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: Birth, Breath, dVerse, Find a way, gasp, life, Poetry, Poetry prompt, Quadrille, Struggle 29 Comments

(Photo: Christian Bowen on Unsplash)

She strained

Against walls which

Heaved

About her.

She tensed limbs and

Tucked her

Chin

Fighting for a

Purchase

Around her.

And still the world

Convulsed.

Impossible in

Pressure.

Till sudden

Light.

A gasp of cold

As air

Rushed

Into lungs

To life her.

For dVerse quadrille poetry challenge of: gasp in 44 words

On A Treetop

March 4, 2023March 4, 2023Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: Birds, Cradle, Flash Fiction, Memory, Micro Fiction, Nesting, Nursery Rhyme, Poetry, Treetop, Weekend Writing Prompt 15 Comments

(Photo: Frank Eiffert on Unsplash)

Clear as daylight.

A cradle rocking

On a treetop.

No baby.

Thank God.

Or was there?

Was the movement the wind,

Or a small living thing?

She felt her heart flutter in

A memory

Of falling.

Heard a rustle and shuddered.

Ran for the

Ladder.

Climbed.

Swallows nesting

In the cradle.

Wide open mouths.

A child’s toy

Flown off a balcony.

Made home.

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt of Treetop in 63 words

Adrift

February 4, 2023Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Poetry, Reflections, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: Challenges, Creative writing, Find a way, Helplessness, Key, Lost, Mental Health, Poetry, Trying to help, Weekend Writing Prompt 17 Comments

(Photo: Laurenz Heymann on Unsplash)

They would have gladly helped.

If he had let them.

If only he had found

The key

To what his dreams

Put forth.

If only he had known

How to identify

What were so many

Opened doors.

Instead, they watched,

Helplessly muted

To his ears,

As he fumbled,

Lost,

Amidst a maze of what

Were to him

Opaque,

Endless,

Walls.

Their lifelines loose,

Adrift

In the current

Of his

Half-formed

Words.

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt of: Key in 71 words

Space Saver

January 19, 2023Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Funnies, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Photography, Reflections, Writing Tags: 100WordChallenge, Creative solutions, Finding a way, Flash Fiction, Friday Fictioneers, Laundry, Micro-fiction, Sisters, Space saving 55 Comments

small-load NaamaYehuda

“It won’t fit.”

Sandra looked up from kneading. Mollie’s face was red with exertion.

“What won’t?” she asked, resuming the stretch-fold-stretch-fold rhythm. Working dough relaxed her. The knowledge that each pull and press moved energy from her muscles into what would later feed them. The cycle of it.

“The laundry. Nothing fits.”

“That’s odd,” Sandra noted. “I washed linens in it just the other day.”

“But nothing fits!” Mollie’s voice shook. “Not a sock!”

Sandra paused. She forgot how easily her sister got flustered even by simple things.

“It’s a Space-Savor model,” she offered. “Have you tried shrinking the items first?”

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

Photo prompt: © Na’ama Yehuda

Not Unprepared

January 14, 2023Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: Dawn, Flash Fiction, Micro-fiction, Nighttime, Poetry, Preparation, Script, Sleepless, Weekend Writing Prompt, Words 15 Comments

(Photo: Susan Wilkinson on Unsplash)

She was up all night.

Words crowded her mind. Piled atop each other, they kept coming

Impatient. Wanting to be picked.

Even the discarded ones pressed behind closed lids, trying to repeat.

A few slipped, surprising and lubricated by unexpected tears.

Of worry.

Of hope.

Of fatigue.

She tossed and turned. She wrote. She paced.

And still words tumbled. Filling every space.

In the small hours she ran the tub.

Soaked.

Prayed to soften the callouses

And the rough edges

Snagging nonsense

In her mind.

As dawn rose, she was bare.

Exhausted.

Script mulled.

Not quite ready,

But word lulled.

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt of: Script in 100 words

Impressed

December 10, 2022Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Meditations, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: Admiration, connection, Creative writing, Guitar, Just because, Micro-fiction, Music, Poetry, Weekend Writing Prompt 16 Comments

(Photo: Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash)

Impressed, she was.

The image etched into her mind.

The angle of his neck,

Head bent over the

Guitar,

Engraved

Onto her heart.

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt of Engrave in 23 words

Her Own Shadow

November 12, 2022Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Meditations, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: 100WordChallenge, coping, Difficult decisions, Flash Fiction, Friday Fictioneers, life-change, Micro-fiction, Photo prompt, Shadow, Waiting 47 Comments

Evening light filtered through partially open curtains. Outside the porch’s floorboards sighed. A car’s engine coughed into life. The scent of crushed leaves and motor oil drifted on an errant breeze.

She sighed.

There will be time to sort through the tangled mess inside her heart, to sweep up shards of life, to breathe out the echoes of words she wished to never have heard.

Not yet.

For the moment, she just sat.

A shadow of her former self.

In a house that wept emptiness.

And let the space behind her eyes

Hold her as she waited

To be found.

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

Greenhorn

November 5, 2022November 6, 2022Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: 100WordChallenge, Cars, Family, Flash Fiction, Friday Fictioneers, Legacy, Litmus Test, Micro-fiction, Priorities, Relationships 35 Comments

“A pile of junk,” she had called it.

“My pile of junk,” Tim had responded, knowing then that if it came to choice, it would not be her he’d choose. And not because he cared for wheels and metal more than for flesh and blood. If Daria could not see why Poppa’s beloved Greenhorn was worth saving, she could not see worth where it sat.

Flesh and blood. Heart and soul. Memories and family.

His only. Family.

Daria found a man with a Jaguar.

Tim renovated Poppa’s car.

Found Miranda.

“A classic!” she exclaimed.

Flesh and heart. Worthy of Poppa’s car.

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

Singled Out

October 26, 2022Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: 100WordChallenge, Contentment, Flash Fiction, Friday Fictioneers, Micro-fiction, Mismatch, Perspective, Photo prompt, Relationships, Solitude 37 Comments

He didn’t mind.

Not really.

She tossed him out, she did. A punishment. For being “self-absorbed” and “unmotivated.”

Fair blame, it was. If needing quiet time was selfish, and if not finding it important to climb the never-ending escalator of social comparison, spelled lacking motivation.

Emily liked that stuff.

He did not.

A mismatch more than an actual problem.

For him.

He’d have to find better insulated housing before winter. But in the interim, the camper offered everything he needed.

Shelter. Nature. Quiet. Calm.

Perhaps he’d send Emily a thank you card. Next time he was in town.

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers