Frank Hubeny

Beggars Can’t Be Choosers

“Beggars can’t be choosers,” Ryan pontificated.

“We’re all beggars. We all depend on a handout, on something going right once in a great while.”

“Not all of us. Some of us can choose.”

“You know you’re a beggar just like I am.”

“Nope. I can choose.”

“What can you choose?”

“I can choose to sit right here.”

That’s when they saw Hawkins, a policeman, approach.

“I wonder what he wants?”

“You know what he wants.”

Hawkins stopped. “OK, guys, it’s 10 o’clock. Time for both of you to go to the shelter.”

“I get top bunk.”

“No, you don’t.”

Linked to Carrot Ranch with the constraint for this week's 99-word stories to be to use the phrase "beggars can't be choosers".

Words

 
Words would try to touch the heart of it.
They vaguely churn weak hopes that that will do.
Doing so is but a part of it.

Experts draw and make a chart of it,
Push away what clearly won’t go through.
Words would try to touch the heart of it.

The sound of words, a pleasing start of it,
May tease with pleasure seeking what is true.
Doing so is but a part of it.

Fancy words entail what's smart in it
And fool us with a wave of wisdom, too.
Words would try to touch the heart of it.

Guilt appears like broken art in it,
Displays a glimpse of past for us to rue.
Doing so is but a part of it.

So, come, forgiveness, fill your cart with it.
Keep the future open to what’s new.
Words would try to touch the heart of it,
But love protects the deepest part of it.

A villanelle linked to Sarah’s Forms for All and dVerse Meeting the Bar where Grace is hosting with the theme of rhyme and slant rhyme.

Also linked to Debbie Roth’s Forgiving Fridays.

One-Liner Wednesday – Awareness

I’m not even aware of all the stuff I take for granted.

Linked to Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday.

#1linerWeds badge by Cheryl, at dreamingreality646941880.wordpress.com/

Life Sustaining Water

The water's calm but storms approach. 
Their clouds will soon be high.
With future fresh and past well-spent 
The birds play with the sky.

Linked to dVerse Poetics where Linda Lee Lyberg is hosting with the theme “life sustaining water”.

State of the Art

 
As long as it’s impossible
 I’ll try it if you ask.
Guide my hands and calm my mind
 And carry out the task.

Linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with the theme “state of the art”. I offer photos of what might be considered, perhaps not by the lizards, as state of the art lizard living quarters.

Fire

Despair defeats hope with fire.

Pete wondered what that was supposed to mean while reading the fortune to his wife. He felt enough despair for it to feel like the fires of hell.

“What does yours say?”

“It’s blank.”

“Remember when I got ‘A fool at forty is a fool indeed’?”

She remembered, but her blank fortune worried her.

“Maybe I should ask for another one?”

“Let’s switch.”

“Does that count?”

They switched. She read these words, “The fire of hope defeats despair”,. and gave it back.

“This one belongs to you.”

She asked for a new fortune cookie.

Linked to Carrot Ranch where the theme this week for the 99-word stories is “fire”.

Cascade

 
My mind begins the cascade’s fall
To water somewhere down below
When I say “Yes” before the “Why?”

I’ve only pieces of it all
Though more I have no need to know.
My mind begins the cascade’s fall.

I wonder where these journeys go
And what do birds see when they fly?
There’s water somewhere down below.

Beneath that water-wonder I
Might understand the cascade’s call
When I said “Yes” before the “Why?”

Linked to dVerse Poetics where Amaya is hosting with the theme of “cascade” and a poetic form called “cascade”.

Incline at Manitou Spings. What looks like the top is just the beginning or so it seems when you get there.

One-Liner Wednesday – Memories

We don’t know in advance which of our words and acts will leave others with a lifetime of memories.

Linked to Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday.

Fun in the Sun

Linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with the theme “fun in the sun”.

Eminence

After moving to the beach town whose eminence attracted him he no longer got up early to join the seagulls as the sun rose above the ocean. He no longer paid attention to the tiny lizards running on the sidewalks. He stopped celebrating the tropical climate and started complaining about the heat.

It shocked him to realize that he no longer wanted to go to the Cuban-run bakery for a cortadito. He made his own coffee.

His relatives from northern lands were still awed by palm trees and lizards, but by moving to paradise he had become a local.

Linked to Carrot Ranch where the theme for this week’s 99-word flash fiction challenge is “eminence”.