From Useful to Useless

Yellow Flowers

I held the pottery in my hands and noticed the crack across the bottom. It would not hold water but perhaps it was still useful.

When I placed it in the donations box I noticed an edge. I picked it up again running my thumb to test the sharpness and drew blood.

While bandaging my thumb I realized it was not safe to donate. After wrapping it I dropped it in the garbage chute and heard in the dumpster below the impact which split it in two.

Linked to GirlieOnTheEdge Six Sentence Story Word Prompt with the challenge word “useful”.

GirlieOnTheEdge Denise Farley's six-sentence-stories icon
GirlieOnTheEdge Denise Farley’s six-sentence-stories icon
Prairie Wildflowers

Author: Frank Hubeny

I enjoy walking, poetry and short prose as well as taking pictures with my phone.

21 thoughts on “From Useful to Useless”

  1. Nope, not a good donation item. Good catch! Old clay pots that had chipped, then cracked and seemed headed for the trash heap, I’d smash a bit. Just enough to get the right size pieces to lay on the bottom of other pots when I potted new plants. Always a great help with drainage. Hated to see a good pot go to waste 🙂

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  2. Speaking for myself, I was branching the narrative almost at “…noticed the crack across the bottom” and totally at “…drew blood.”

    Goes to prove the wisdom in the old chestnut, ‘A good story has margins wide enough for the Reader to write in’.

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  3. Good six. If it’s junk, it’s junk. Some things just need to go. I’m with Clark. Drawing blood always takes me to another place. great job here. You made us think and that is what this is all about…well, and brevity and succintness.

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  7. I think if there was any question as to whether it was sharp or not, I would not have tested it with my thumb. I’m a little protective like that.
    It wasn’t safe to keep or to donate. Good decision.

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    1. Some items I become attached to and I want them to be enjoyed by others if not by me. It is hard to let some things go and especially hard to hear them break in a dumpster. Thank you!

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  9. My thought was that it was difficult to let that formerly useful piece go, because the writer had created the piece of pottery. It would make it much harder to throw into the dumpster that way!

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