Haiku

bird on wire looks down
sings stops waits for an answer
birder consults book

for Word Prompts. Word prompt “Reading”

grand opening

Backdoor Nebraska is a small town. Or is there a word for what is smaller than a town? A village? Smaller than that. Hamlet? Crossroads? Not enough roads.

Whistle-stop? Train don’t stop.

You can buy milk in Backdoor. The cow is out back. Order hamburg and you can’t get milk no more.

Laundromat closed when the creek dried up.

Lack of size don’t stop us from trying. We’ve got a gas station and we plan to get some gas sometime. We’ve got a newspaper posted up. I found it over in Prune Grove.

Anyway, consider this a social-media advertisement for our new department store. As shone above, two coats are available for sale at this time. You’ve got to stop at the train crossing anyway, so come on over!

for Crimson’s Creative Challenge

poem

a face, special words
or the wrong piece of pizza
sets the heart aflame

for In Other Words

Hard Night

We played a gig last Saturday. Lester Ruffin on bass, Mischievous Waters (son of Muddy Waters) on piano, and me on horn.

Hot summer night. Moist. Heat lightning in the sky. The Hemp Club packed, overhead fans not working. Everybody replacing their sweat with beer. We played hard and loud, tearing the place up.

Mischievous came back from a break with tears in his eyes and one hand holding the other. Cheated at craps, got caught, got his hand busted up.

His younger brother Serious Waters was in the house and filled in for him but it wasn’t the same. In spite of the heat, the place cooled down.

for Tuesday Writing Prompt Challenge

haiku

bird hops pecks hops pecks
seeking seeds watching for cats
woman studies bird

for I Write Her Weekly Challenge

haiku

pure lake serene swan
woman sworn to recycle
plastic cup in hand

for Ronovan Writes

haiku

fresh brown cubs by stream
watch mother catch swift salmon
the first day of school

for Word of the Day Prompt

smile

not to be recursive or meta, and i’ll only do this once, and i’m probably not the first, but writing this first thing on a nice monday morning is making me smile.

for The Weekly Smile