Photo: Toni Hadi
He was born without home
And no prospect of more
But his adorability-factor
Ensured
He’d capture good hearts
Galore!
For Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Cute factor
Cute Factor
Just for fun
We’re Ducky!
Photo: Atara Katz
We’re no ducks but still wish
To get
In a row.
There is no law against it.
So there,
Now you know.
For Nancy Merrill’s Photo a week: ducks in a row
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Rocking It
Photo: Jim Moore
It’s a steep climb
For sure
But he feels
The allure.
This rock face,
This cliff,
He can’t help think,
“What if?”
It’s a very high
Wall,
And he’s a penguin
And small,
But he’ll attempt
Still
To scale,
And he intends
To not fail!
For the Tuesday Photo Challenge: Rock
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The Colonists
Photo: Sue Vincent
They would come out when dark was complete under a moon that was yet to be reborn.
First a scout would be sent. One not quite old enough to have their wisdom be missed, but not quite so young that they’d be careless or uninformed. It was an honor and a worry, both. For not all scouts returned, and laws dictated that no one is to follow and the outing abandoned until the next dark comes. The safety of the colony outweighed any singular life, no matter how heartbroken they were over losing one of their own or how many nightmares wracked the communal dreams for many sleeps afterwards.
Most times, blessed be the hidden stars, the scout would return safely. If they confirmed that all was as it should be, any who could walk would funnel topside through the tunnels that honeycombed their underground world, and out into the rocky canyon which was formed a million years ago by a whip of light from the stars.
The colony would climb over hills of leaves and navigate the muddy ponds at the bottom of the canyon, all in silence that only the heartbeats in their collective chests would pierce. For the predators were many and the colonists were small and peaceable. They lacked fangs or claws and were opposed to weaponry. The universe that sprawled beyond the walls of their rock canyon provided the provisions they required. They took the danger with the blessings.
Once beyond the relative shelter of the canyon walls, they’d fan out to forage and gather: edible leaves, stalks of grass for feed and weave and bedding, acorns, nuts, seeds, berries, and the occasional fallen fruit or discovered tuber that required many hands to trundle back into the tunnels where they lived.
They’d work until the elder who tracked the darkness passed the whisper to return, and they would fall in line to carry the final batches home.
The last to enter the canyon would pull a broom of leaves behind them – a gesture of traditional thanks for the sustenance, and a practical act for sweeping away many footsteps. The ancients had tunneled pathways for them to emerge into the night from, but there was no need to make those very pathways highways to decimation. They took care to not be known.
With all returned, the elders would seal the rocky door and bless it closed, and the colony would sigh relief as the rock itself would seem to whisper as it settled into slumber til the next unborn moon darkened the sky.
For Sue Vincent’s WritePhoto Challenge
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Keen Green
Photo: Dvora Freedman
Hello there,
How are you, Ma’am?
I’ve missed a spot?
Oh well, oh damn.
There’s no perfection
On the lam
And I’ve really
Got to scram.
Have you seen some
Elves around?
I’ve been told to
Look for rainbows
At the end of
Traffic jams,
(And yes, I know the
Gold’s a scam
But I’ll still give it
An exam).
For Terri’s Sunday Stills: Green
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Unabashed Bash
Photo: Fawaz Sharif
She would not apologize for throwing a party to celebrate her last menstruation.
“Oh, but I will have a bash, if only to bash the preconceived notion that we women have any reason to be bashful about our body’s machinations,” she declared when her husband paled at the idea and her sons bloomed into a matching shade of pink.
“We gals bleed for a good chunk of our lives,” she pressed on, ignoring the slight green hue that crept onto her sons’ faces. “It is the blood of life, the blood of disappointment, or relief, or missed opportunity … but it is our blood, made by our bodies and relinquished so new lining can accept a future product of intercourse.”
“Mom …” her eldest groaned, but she silenced him with one of her ‘looks’ and glared a warning at her youngest, who appeared ready to chorus. At seventeen and sixteen they had squirmed through several variations of “the talk” in their lives, and would survive this one, too. Especially as they were old enough to be instrumental in causing a female’s monthly cycle to not cycle … If they were capable of ravishing girls’ bodies with more than their eyes, they should be able to stomach the realities of what girls’ bodies are capable of, as well as what women both endure and celebrate.
“I’m not going to force you to be here for the party,” she clarified. The vivid relief on all three of her menfolk’s faces was hilarious even if she couldn’t help being somewhat insulted. “What I will not do is lie about what this party is for.”
Her body had reached a milestone, and she wasn’t going to pretend it was nothing worth a mention. Not when the two young men (and the one which had preceded them but never made it through to birthing) were proof of the very miracles that female bodies – like her own – had been capable of till now. This called for proper celebration.
She rummaged in her bag and pulled out a scribbled-on napkin. “Let’s see. I’ve made a list. There will be invitations, perhaps shaped like uteri, or like tampons. I hadn’t decided.”
Now that her attention was no longer fully on them, her sons eyed each other and began to beat a slow but determined retreat. She raised an eyebrow in their direction and did not challenge them, but when her husband deigned to follow his offspring, she tapped the seat next to her in more order than invitation.
He sat.
He’d learned long ago that anything to do with “women’s time” was best not argued with or over. He hadn’t the foggiest idea what it would be like to have a period (or be pregnant or lose one or give birth or nurse babies, for that matter), and he wasn’t sure he wanted to have more of an idea of any of it. Certainly not the bloody business, which always gave him the queasy willies. So he kept his mouth shut and nodded at what he thought were appropriate intervals as his wife kept on with her planning monologue.
It did not stop his mind from sending fervent prayers that Carrie or Michelle or Linda, or anyone with double-X chromosomes, and therefore far more suited for such planning, would stop by or call and rescue him from being his wife’s audience.
“So,” she enthused, “for the cake? What do you think? Red velvet?”
His favorite. Well, not anymore.
He didn’t think he’d be able to touch the stuff again.
For the SoCS prompt: abash/a bash/bash
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On The Wall
Photo: Philip Coons
Among murals I
Would get
No prize for
Over talent,
But on this wall
I still get smiles
(And tissues for my
Exhalant …)
For Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Murals
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Black Friday
Photo prompt: © CEAyr
“We’ll call him Friday,” Emmaline stated.
Roger glanced up. They’d just left the restaurant and he had urgent emails to check. “Call who?”
“Him.” She pointed toward the bike, which was parked across the alleyway between a bush and a wall.
He squinted and frowned simultaneously. Emmaline’s cryptic tendencies were sweet sometimes but annoying most other times.
He saw no one. His frown deepened. A stupid black cat perched on his bike’s seat, fur puffed as if it had just stuck a paw in a socket.
“See?” Emmaline laughed. “He adopted our bike on Black Friday. Let’s call him Friday.”
For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers
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Sweet Little Round Of Mine
Photo: Inbar Asif
The yeast had proofed
The dough had risen
Air had filled the bubbles high.
A kiss of oil
A squirt of jelly, and
Powdered sugar flying by.
The plate is set
The mouth is open:
This treat won’t fail to
Satisfy.
For the Tuesday Photo Challenge: Round
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Berry Barbs
Photo: Na’ama Yehuda
Baby berries
In barbed bushes
That protect
The precious parcels
From beaks and bears
And plucking fingers
Poised to pry
The ripe supply.
Na'ama Yehuda 
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