Water Line

June 8, 2021Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: belief, CCC, Faith, Flash Fiction, Folklore, Micro-fiction, Monsters, Photo prompt, Protection, Reality check, Self-awareness 13 Comments

ccc134

She took herself onto the cliff each morning. Obedient. Observant. Obeisant.

Obscure as her faith seemed to those who did not understand, she nonetheless kept fast to her beliefs. To her practice. Those who shook their head did so due to limits in their vision. Their blindness did not diminish the veracity of what was, to her, as real as the rock she sat on.

She did not belittle other people’s inability.

As she wished they did not deride what they declared her “foolishness.”

To her, it was a line she drew. Of kindness. Or on harder days, of patience.

A mirror to the line that stretched across the water to reflect the passage of the Glories. The empyrean beings that took pain to skim the water in her favor.

In all their favor.

As protection.

From the monsters of the deep.

The ones she knew. The one she’d seen.

For Crispina‘s Crimson’s Creative Challenge

Turning Up

June 5, 2021Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: Current events, Determination, Facts Matter, Human Rights, Nonviolence, Poetry, Protest, Speaking up, Truth, Voting Rights, Weekend Writing Prompt 13 Comments

(Photo: Brett Jordan on Unsplash)

There had to be a way

To be heard,

Without becoming

What they fought

Against.

They refused to condone

Violence,

Hate,

Or putting others down

To make a point.

Instead,

They turned up

A crescendo

Of truths.

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Crescendo in 37 words

Long Term Parking

June 4, 2021Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: 100WordChallenge, Flash Fiction, Friday Fictioneers, life-change, Loss, Micro-fiction, Parking, Petty, Photo prompt, Resentment 40 Comments

She let them think she didn’t mean it.

Though she had.

If she no longer could drive, then none of them were going to be able to.

At least not with her vehicle.

Sure, it was (another) way of shooting herself in the foot.

No doubt it was petty.

But petty was all she felt that she had left.

If she were to still be noticed.

Life was putting her in long-term parking.

Fine.

She was not going to let others earn more freedom by it.

So she drove the car into the fence, and left it.

And them.

Hanging.

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

Photo prompt © Liz Young

It Wasn’t That

May 31, 2021Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: Cat, Creative writing, Curiosity, dVerse, Nine lives, Pets, Poetry, Poetry prompt, Quadrille 33 Comments

(Photo: Owen Vangioni on Unsplash)

It wasn’t that

Which killed the cat.

Not inquisitiveness in predawn

Hours

When any decent mind

Would sleep.

Not curiosity about rustling shopping bags

Left

Fending for themselves

Whilst humans fetch more from

The car.

But urgent greed

To speed

Through

All nine lives.

For the dVerse quadrille poetry challenge: curiosity

In The Block

May 29, 2021Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: Creativity, Flash Fiction, Knives, Micro-fiction, Names, Nomenclature, Old Age, Retired, Weekend Writing Prompt 20 Comments

(Photo: SHOT on Unsplash)

She had a thing for giving names. To things.

It was her personal nomenclature.

The house’s door was “Lettie”… for letting her inside the home.

The bed was “Sleeping Beauty” … for some very long dreams.

Her knife set she called “Sharpenado.” In it was “Sharpenado-The-First”, “Sharpenado-The-Second”, “Sharpenado-Junior”, and even “Sharpenado Senior” … the oldest of the bunch. Like her, it was retired and allowed to spend the rest of its dull days in the block.

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Nomenclature in 76 words

Sitting Duck

May 27, 2021Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Funnies, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: Babysitting, CCC, Creative writing, Duckling, Family, Flash Fiction, Just for fun, Micro-fiction, New Beginnings, Photo prompt, Siblings, Spring 13 Comments

“It has no feathers.”

“Of course it doesn’t,” Molly noted. “It’s a duckling. It has fuzz.”

Duffy was not impressed. The small thing was squeaky and looked utterly too squeashy. She wasn’t even sure it was waterproofed.

She shook her head. She never was good with small squeaky, squeashy, clingy things.

“It’s only for a short while,” Molly’s voice was soft, but Duffy recognized the little waves of irritation that signaled turbulence just underneath the surface.

Best not mess with that.

Duffy sighed and peered closely at the fuzzball. “So what am I supposed to do with it?”

Molly flapped with such relief that Duffy wasn’t sure whether to be reassured or terrified.

“Just keep it out of trouble,” her sister called, already on the wing.

“What kind? How…?”

Silence.

Then a squeak.

The fuzzball waddled, pooped, and attempted to preen its zero feathers. Ridiculous.

Her nephew.

Also kinda’ cute.

For Crispina’s Crimson’s Creative Challenge

Off Balance

May 26, 2021Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Funnies, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: 100WordChallenge, Balance, Creative writing, Flash Fiction, Friday Fictioneers, Just for fun, lesson, Lycorma delictula, Micro-fiction, Photo prompt, Spotted Lanternfly 49 Comments

“The key is balance,” Dotty bobbed delicately, defying wind and gravity.

The rest of us clung frantically with all six, desperate to return to lower elevations.

Why did I ever sign up for Advanced Balance?!

If we were meant to be acrobats, we’d have been born in the circus.

“When you’re ready,” Dotty intoned, “be one with the cable …” She lifted a leg on each side to a two-thirds perch.

Insanity.

A wind gust blew me off the bridge. I tumbled, helpless, to be one with the canopies.

Lofty Dotty probably lingered.

Pox on her, the lordly lanternfly!

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers.

Photo prompt: © Miles Rost

Resonance

May 22, 2021Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Poetry, Reflections, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: Adversity, Briefly, Eerie, empathy, Memory, pain, Poetry, Resonance, Understanding, Unexpected, Weekend Writing Prompt 19 Comments

(Photo: Johnny Cohen on Unsplash)

The sound began

A whisper,

Only to crescendo to

A cry

That made the very

Heart

Howl

In eerie

Resonance

Of pain.

Familiar

Again.

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Eerie in 24 words

Lady In Waiting

May 19, 2021Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Meditations, Muse and Flow, Photography, Poetry, Reflections, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: 100WordChallenge, Adversity, Flash Fiction, Freedom, Friday Fictioneers, Hopes, Micro-fiction, Patience, Refugees, Tenacity, The Statue of Liberty 60 Comments

(Photo: Na’ama Yehuda)

If he could make it there, he’d make it anywhere.

It was the axiom he had placed everything on.

He held on to the promise when his body hurt from beatings. He played the image of it in his mind when emptiness of heart and stomach kept him from shut-eye. He whispered small encouragements to himself to drown the insults that insisted he was nothing.

For he was. Someone.

He had to believe.

The words she said.

About where he could be.

Himself.

If he lived.

So he did.

And lit beneath storm clouds, she stood, waiting.

For the day.

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers (Thank you for using my photo as a prompt this week!)