Six Sentence Story: Who Are YOU, Really?

While Adam ate his burger and fries, John, a graduate student at the University of Noital, sat across from him eating a double portion of Apple Poof Delight.

John said, You know, Adam, I identify as a woman.

Adam had been at Noital long enough not to peg his fellow students (nor his professors) with a level of intelligence greater than they were willing to display. Before lifting another spoonful of poof to his mouth, John pursued the topic he initiated by asking, So, Adam, who are YOU, really?

Adam knew he ought to come out of the closet and tell John the truth about who he really was, but he wondered if now was the right time. Then concluding that now was as good a time as any, Adam said – just after that last puddle of poof reached John’s stomach and just before John vanished – I identify as a son of God.

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Denise offers the prompt word “peg” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

August Limericks

All of these limericks were originally posted to Esther Chilton’s Laughing Along With A Limerick during the month of August. Some I have slightly modified.

I’ve added two photos for those who prefer a picture to a thousand words of nonsense.

There once was a la-de-de-da
who wanted a good rhyme for “ah”
like how “much” rhymes with “touch”
like how “such” rhymes with “Dutch”
like how what rhymes with “ah” except “ha”?
Prompt Word “touch” August 4, 2025

Sandy beach and what the ocean waves brought in

The old clock is as still as a rock.
It’s now timelessly ticking each tock.
It still hangs on the wall
since it’s pretty and all,
but it’s not of much use as a clock.
Prompt Word: “rock” August 11, 2025 (modified)

Well, I just want to say I don’t trust
all the news that I hear, but I must
let the dust settle, too.
It’s the least I can do –
and the most – since I can’t control dust.
Prompt word: “just” August 18, 2025

More sandy beach

The odd knowledge I once thought I had
is on sale and for cheap I might add.
I will sing a new song
and you may sing along.
That dumb knowledge is gone and I’m glad.
Prompt word: “sing” August 25, 2025

Cosmic Photo Challenge: Early One Morning

Dale offers the prompt “early one morning” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.

On Saturday morning I opened the door and asked myself: Just what photos should I take in this morning sun for the challenge?

The three below, all within 10 feet of the door, are what I found.

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One flower in the morning
Many flowers in the morning
An early rising stone with fossils

Six Sentence Story: Poof, The Controversy

Not everyone at the University of Noital ate Apple Poof Delight although given the sales data you’d think everyone owned a stake in the company. Regardless of the sales data, there was an array of conspiracy theorists and trouble makers who didn’t mind telling you – contrary to official denials – that poof was being dispersed surreptitiously by the government into the environment.

As counter measures to these rebels, researchers at the Noital Institute of Psycho Sociology applied for and were awarded grants to document the disastrous consequences of not accepting officially approved reality.

To counter fears that might be raised by the dissidents running their mouths – and they took every opportunity to do so – experiments were conducted at the prestigious Noital Medical Facility that were designed to confirm, beyond the shadow of decent doubt, that clear genetic damage could be done to one’s mental faculties if one did NOT eat – daily – a full serving from the poof food group.

To keep the conspiracy theorists from detecting much of anything, engineers from the Noital School of Science, Engineering and Advanced Nescience did their part to improve mechanisms to hide the trails left when packets of poof were dispersed to pollute the air, water and soil making sure everyone – including those pesky dissidents – got a healthy dose of it.

I asked one normally outspoken rebel who irrationally refused to ever – willingly – put poof in his mouth the clear and reasonable question – Why not? – but all he did was give me a look as if he thought the insanity of humanity had reached a level not seen before in human history little realizing that the sanity level had never been very high to begin with.

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Denise offers the prompt word “stake” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

Cosmic Photo Challenge: As The Sun Goes Down

Dale offers the prompt “as the sun goes down” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.

These were taken earlier this year.

From where I was they are sunsets, but for other folk they would have been a sunrise.

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Sunset behind a tall building and the Intracoastal Waterway in southern Florida
Sunset behind a tree
Sunset with clouds

Six Sentence Story: The Mousetrap Or The Cliff

Adam Qos, a graduate student at the University of Noital, was eating lunch in the cafeteria of his dorm when another graduate student sat down across from him with his tray full of Apple Poof Delight.

“Is that all you’re going to eat?” Adam asked with a flat expression as if he had asked that same student the same thing many times in the past which indeed he had.

“But it’s so good, Qos,” the student said.

“You know it says right on the package that you could vanish if you eat it,” Adam pointed out.

“But it’s so very, very good,” the student explained to his own satisfaction which in postmodern ethics is as far as one can go, but that is far enough to fall off a cliff or tempt a mousetrap one time too many.

If this were the first time they had this conversation, Adam would have explained to him that if one wanted to live a long and happy life it is not smart to jump off a cliff, but such universal truths don’t sink in for some until the mousetrap snaps shut.

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Denise offers the prompt word “flat” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

Cosmic Photo Challenge: Close Up

Dale offers the prompt “close up” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.

I think I was less than a foot or so away from the object when I took the photo with my phone.

These are not recent photos but likely within the last year or two.

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Up close on the bark of a tree growing in southern Florida
Up close on a bee and a sunflower
Up close on a fallen palm branch