All Better Soon

 

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(Photo: Uwe Conrad on Unsplash)

 

She cried into the onions, peeled the taters, chopped the carrots, minced the garlic, seared the chicken bits.

Around her a cacophony of coughs.

A prodigious sneeze.

She wiped. She washed her hands. She stirred.

The panacea simmered.

There’s nothing chicken soup won’t fix.

 

 

 

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt of: Panacea in 44 words

 

The String

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(Photo: Tom Pumford on Unsplash)

 

Her fingertips betrayed her. Flitting over the edge of her shirt. Spinning the loose string that twirled and fluttered in loops of tightening and release.

He might come. He might not.

Her quiet hope.

 

 

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt of: Flutter in 34 words

 

Albatross

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(Photo: Duncan Kidd on Unsplash)

 

They were all of them going to the fair. But her.

She had to stay home. Tend the fire. Knead the dough. Rock the cradle.

She still recalled her dreams of growing up. The independence.

The folly.

She went from burdened by her folks, to burdened by her husband.

The dream now an albatross.

A wail rose from the other room. The baby.

Could have been her own dejected cry.

 

 

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt of: Dejected in 70 words

 

Another Step

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(Photo by Volkan Olmez on Unsplash)

 

Her legs were lead.

Her arms were stone.

She could not take another step.

The weight around her neck,

Shackles

She could not

Discard.

She was so tired.

But she’d gotten them away

And he was breathing still.

So she shifted the child in her arms.

Walked on.

 

 

 

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt of: tired in 48 words

 

For A Good Cause

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(Photo: Angiola Harry on Unsplash)

 

It did not matter that

The evidence was there for all

To see.

The crumbs.

The chocolate stains.

The broken shards of Nana’s cookie

Jar with

That crack from when Pawpaw drank

Too much and thought he was a

Knife thrower

But missed

The block.

It didn’t matter she was

Caught.

The child was

Unrepentant.

“Cookies are for eatin’, Nana.

No good letting them go stale

In that

Pot!”

 

 

 

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt of: Unrepentant in 69 words

 

On A Treetop

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(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

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(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

 

A Word In

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(Photo: Hal Cooks on Unsplash)

 

It’s not my fault

That she won’t stop

Talking.

My side of the family has never been a

Chatterbox.

My papa says nary a word.

My mama can hardly be called

Garrulous.

It is your relations who are incessantly

Loquacious.

With them one cannot get a word in sideways.

A dinner lasts three weeks.

A quarrel, half a century.

So do not come to me

Complaining

About Junior’s wordiness.

“You should listen to yourself,” you say?

Shifting blame is something

Else

Your whole family does

Pretty much endlessly.

 

 

 

 

For Sammi’s Weekened Writing Prompt of: Loquacious in 88 words