Author: Frank Hubeny

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

Gallery – A Six Sentence Story

“All those tiny people in the gallery don’t know it but they’re at the center of the universe,” Mark asserted.

George protested, “The universe doesn’t have a center.” 

And so the claims and counter-claims of George and Mark came and went, often nowhere. Where would one want them to go? Should they flutter to the whatchamacallit radio source at Sagittarius A*?

“And,” Mark continued, “if those tiny people in the gallery are at the center of the universe they’re right smack dab where they ought to be.”

Linked to Six Sentence Story where Denise offers the challenge word “gallery”.

Tiny Shadows at the Center of the Universe
GirlieOnTheEdge Denise Farley's six-sentence-stories icon
GirlieOnTheEdge Denise Farley’s six-sentence-stories icon

Look to the Skies

Look up. Look down.
Reflecting water shows
The sky as all around.
Morning sunshine grows.

Linked to Cosmic Photo Challenge where Dale offers the theme of “look to the skies”.

Also linked to Trent P. McDonald’s The Weekly Smile. It’s midnight. Soon it will be Monday morning. I can’t think of a good reason (that I haven’t already reported) why I’ve been smiling this past week. Being able to calmly watch the sun rise over the pond below is a blessing that reinforces the default smile. Although the August wildflowers are past their peak in the Forest Preserve, the forest and trails are still there and sometimes I am as well.

Look up. Look Down. The sky is all around.
Cosmic Photo Challenge

High Winds – Flash Fiction

The only high winds were Windy, the wolf, so Straw, the pig, built a house of straw. Brick overbuilt with bricks. Stick used what was lying around, sticks. Both annoyed Straw.  “It’s not fair!” Straw complained to Windy. He wanted all three houses.

Windy went to Stick’s home and blew it down. Chomp! He ate Stick.  Then he went to Brick’s home. Brick gave Straw a key. Straw lent it to Windy. Chomp! 

When Windy returned Straw squealed, “Perfect!”  Windy, mind-blown as ever, thought: yummy.  Chomp! He (gasp!) ate Straw.

Moral: Some high winds can take your breath away.

Linked to Carrot Ranch’s September 3rd Flash Fiction Challenge where Charli Mills offers the theme of “high winds” for these 99-word stories.

Purple

Sunday Walk 5

When you have reached your own room, be kind to those who have chosen different doors and to those who are still in the hall. If they are wrong they need your prayers all the more; and if they are your enemies, then you are under orders to pray for them. That is one of the rules common to the whole house.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics, 2002, page 11, at the end of the preface

Here is a song written by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend. Wikipedia reports a controversy between the satisfaction theory of atonement and the ransom theory of atonement regarding the lines “Till on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied”. Although I don’t fully understand this controversy, I like this song. In doing so I hope I remain kind to those who have chosen different doors or who are still searching in the hall.

Keith Getty and Stuart Townend, sung by Kristyn Getty and Alison Krauss, In Christ Alone

Serenity #writephoto

Blue on blue with patient blue
Caressing me and also you.
But should you say it’s red instead
Insisting that I bumped my head,
Perhaps you’re right. Perhaps that’s true,
But I still see a pretty blue.

Linked to Sue Vincent’s Thursday Photo Prompt. She provided the photo below for the prompt.

Sue Vincent's photo twilight
Sue Vincent’s photo twilight
Sue Vincent's Image for #writephoto
Sue Vincent’s Image for #writephoto

Tip

“No need to worry. You look good.
You’re healthier than most I’ve seen.”
His diet’s simple, conscience clean -
Except when doing what what he would
Instead of what he knew he should.
Some end will come. Although he'd pay,
No doctor then could make him stay.
Perhaps today the ground will tip.
On what’s unknown, his feet shall slip
And then, like dust, he'd blow away.

Linked to Ronovan Writes Décima Poetry Challenge where the rhyme word is “tip” which should appear in a D line where the rhyme scheme is ABBAACCDDC.

A Path To The Setting Sun
Ronovan's Decima Poetry Challenge Image
Ronovan’s Decima Poetry Challenge Image

Twist – A Six Sentence Story

Gerald said the only problem with Tim’s life was that it had no twist to it.  

This surprised him.  He owned a multi-trillion-dollar company that gave the Moon a sustainable atmosphere allowing mass colonization.  His manipulated philanthropic foundations kept the world rational during the Second Propaganda War.  As he saw it, twist or no twist, someone should give him a medal (and many had).

Gerald admitted he couldn’t pin down precisely what bothered him about Tim except to say, “The only twist I see in your life, Tim, is that you were born, but that should have been just the beginning.” 

Linked to Six Sentence Stores where Denise offers the prompt word of “twist”.

Light Twisting Through the Trees
GirlieOnTheEdge Denise Farley's six-sentence-stories icon
GirlieOnTheEdge Denise Farley’s six-sentence-stories icon

An Interesting Perspective

Even pigeons have a view
When looking out on me and you.

Linked to the Cosmic Photo Challenge where Dale offers the theme of “an interesting perspective”. I chose what might be called the “pigeon perspective” assuming the pigeon is walking on the ground.

Also linked to Trent P. McDonald’s The Weekly Smile. Another week went by. From some perspectives that may seem inconsequential, but the thought that we were all given the privilege to live it made me smile.

Pigeon Perspective Street Lines
Cosmic Photo Challenge