Stephanie suggested that her father visit the Nature Center at a part of the Forest Preserve that was further away than his normal trails. Every year when she was in middle school they took a field trip to that center and listened to the guides describe the wild birds and animals that lived there.
When her father reached the Nature Center he chose a loop trail realizing that he had been there before, long ago, with Stephanie when she was at a tender age, barely able to walk. He counted the decades and felt time disappear in his memory.
A healthy, but elderly couple approached and asked him how short the loop was concerned that it might go on for over a mile. He answered as one well-acquainted with this very short loop that even a child could walk saying, “It’s not long at all.”
Linked to Six Sentence Stories where Denise offers the word “tender” to use in the story.
Some decades earlier he went
Along this way he’s walking now.
A child in hand and wife somehow
Were with him as if Heaven sent,
But now his energy’s near spent.
The sign suggests he’s on some trail
That loops to somewhere vaguely known.
A wind picks up. The oak trees groan.
His strength returns though flesh stays frail
While every breath yearns to exhale.
Linked to Ronovan Writes Décima Poetry Challenge Prompt No. 30 where the rhyme word “exhale” needs to be used as a C rhyme in a décima with rhyme pattern ABBAACCDDC.
I realize I got the rhyme pattern wrong for a décima. Here is a revision:
Some decades earlier he went
Along this way he’s walking now.
A child in hand and wife somehow
Were with him as if Heaven sent,
But now his energy’s near spent.
The sign suggests he’s on some trail.
His strength returns though flesh stays frail.
The curving path becomes well-known.
A wind picks up. The oak trees groan.
His every breath yearns to exhale.
When Lydia was playing in a shallow pool about four inches deep she stumbled and fell face down into the water. The problem is she did not stand up. She kept her face submerged in the water. She was very young.
Her father was watching her and saw what happened. He got up out of his chair, stepped into the water and lifted her. He and his wife wiped off the water. Lydia smiled. That was enough water play for today.
It wasn’t a dangerous rescue. Some rescues are routine, but imagine the consequences if they had not happened.
I have no fear of ghosts or such,
But humans - compromised, possessed -
They do cause trouble - very much -
They're twisted, troubled, without rest.
They think they're tough. What do they know?
They aren't so difficult to see.
When eyes blaze hot with hate they show
Their weakness then their fear of me.
Linked to Cosmic Photo Challenge where Dale offers the theme of “spooky”. I doubt these photos are all that spooky unless one imagines an appropriate backstory. So imagine dark secrets, including those long forgotten nasty ones that you don’t want the kids or your parents to know, suddenly polluting the light, standing out like these silhouetted trees.
If that doesn’t work, here’s a happy pumpkin.
Happy pumpkin
Also linked to Trent P. McDonald’s The Weekly Smile. The forest preserves and parks were beautiful this past week. We went to many that I had not seen in years including some along Lake Michigan.
The day is warm. The sky is bright.
I don't know why I worry so.
The witches have refused to go,
But have they ever? Where there's Light
There never is a need for fright.
It's true that sometimes things do seem
More like a nightmare than a dream
Like wizardry raised to the sky.
What wealth that brings will make you cry
And turn true peace into a scream.
Linked to Ronovan Writes Décima Poetry Challenge Prompt No. 29 where the rhyme word “fright” should be used in the A line of a decima with rhyme pattern ABBAACCDDC.
A very short story of mine, “Dream”, was published in Whispers and Echoes. I am grateful to Sammi Cox for accepting it for the Tiny Terrors theme.
The foreign interests used the pleasures of wealth and sex as the foundation of their plan to blackmail those with political, judicial or media power. The moral character of a good many across this spectrum was weak enough that they took the bait.
When the foreign interests informed those entrapped of the incriminating evidence possessed against them, they realized they were compromised. They should have resigned and faced the appropriate punishments exposing the infiltration of those foreign interests in the process. Instead they decided it was safer for them to do what the foreign interests told them to do.
That is, it was safer until those with stronger moral character exposed them and drained their putrid swamp.
Linked to Six Sentence Story where Denise offers the prompt word “foundation”.
“These fools no longer believe in anything. Before if you said headless they’d have had enough brains to say horseman. Now they don’t even know what you’re talking about.”
That brought a round of cackling.
“We’ve got every pretentious intellectual asserting they follow the science without realizing our academic stooges rigged their stupid science.”
How they love cackling.
“They don’t even know how rigged things are. Their media, their major corporations and those god-awful, pompous academics wallow in our swamp and most of them don’t even know it. They think they’re doing good.”
More cackling.
“They think they’re saving the planet.”
Cackle!!
“The absolute stupidest worship our own lord Satan.”
Cackle! Cackle!
“Well, some do know, but they’re weak. Their Jehu was a prayer. He was too little too late. We deluded or we compromised everyone into slandering him.”
Ringworm continued gloating. The other demons were hoping he was right, but since so much was fake after Ringworm’s monkeying they weren’t sure what was going on. However, no one could deny Ringworm was a genius.
“We’ll bring this country down!”
There was more cackling, stomping and braindead merrymaking until a frightened sentinel rushed in and shouted, “JEHU WON THE ELECTION!”
“WHAAAAT! Battle stations! The swamp, my precious murky, putrid swamp, he’ll drain it!”
Linked to Ronovan WritesThe 13 Writing Challenge where the word count should be less than or equal to 513 and congruent to 13 modulo 100. Mine is 213 words. There are plenty of other scary constraints besides it being due today, October 28th, which is a Wednesday the 13th modulo 15 of the month. So hurry. The headless horseman is chasing you.
For those who aren’t familiar with Jehu, see 2 Kings chapters 9 and 10. For those who want more stories of the antics of similar demons, see C.S. Lewis’s TheScrewtape Letters. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, watch the following video. Now if that isn’t scary, I don’t know what is.
The vertical rise of the morning sun
Carries our hope when the day’s begun.
Though the darkness returns in late afternoon
Then the dreams, those sweet dreams, show the dreamer what's true.
Linked to Cosmic Photo Prompt where Dales offers the theme “vertical”. The top photo looks vertically into the forest canopy. The bottom shows a contrast between the vertical trees and the flat region that has been cut as part of forest management.
Also linked to Trent P. McDonald’s The Weekly Smile. The forest preserve has been beautiful and the weather has provided many opportunities to enjoy it. Even after a rain, I smiled.
Another reason for a smile is that a very short story of mine, “Cliff”, appeared in Whispers and Echoes. I am grateful to Sammi Cox for accepting it.
The big news is that the same outlet claims that (a) Communist China owns Joe Biden; (b) Joe Biden sold out CIA assets in China who were then executed or imprisoned; and (c) GTV has millions of images showing other presumably influential people in comprising positions.
Andrea Widburg, “Forget the Hunter Biden sex tapes. The real news is much bigger than that.” American Thinker, October 25, 2020 (Found on Citizen Free Press)
Once Donald Trump wins the election on November 3rd, the draining of the American swamp can begin. I hope to see Ruby Giuliani leading that. Here is another message from him, Episode 79.
A sign I saw at a rally in Northbrook, Illinois, on October 24, 2020, and Donald Trump was not even there to draw the crowd.
I am a registered Democrat in Miami Beach, Florida. I voted for the President, Donald Trump, and I predict he will win on November 3rd. Then I predict he, along with the help of others, will drain this swamp.
I am grateful that the Senate confirmed Amy Coney Barrett as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court with a vote of 52 to 48.
Poetry, Short Prose and Walking 