Whispers and Echoes – Poetry, Short Prose and Walking

Unexpected Call – A Very Short Tale

After a decade Bill called. He reached a level of intoxication where lunacy required an audience. He also had a list of unforgivable people and wanted to go over it with me. Admittedly I’ve messed things up, plenty, but I was surprised to find my name on his list.

After an hour I told Bill I could hook him up with a good shrink or an exorcist if he preferred. That worked. He hung up.

A week later I called him back. Bill was sober and I was tactful. We joked some before I brought up the exorcist.

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This story originally appeared in Whispers and Echoes.

Moon Song

They sat outside our dorm singing the Moon Song. It was his favorite. Even she knew it. He sang, “Yadda yadda goo goo.” She responded, “Doodoo doodoo wah wah.” This would go on and on.

I imagined them singing the Moon Song for decades even after a long day of fighting and making up. When they grew old I imagined them singing it to each other in their hearts.

Indeed I hope so.

But we didn’t have air conditioning. My window was open. This was exam week. And that’s my lame excuse for shouting, “Shut up!”

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Originally appeared in Whispers and Echoes.

Public Art

Dale offers “public art” as the prompt for this week’s Cosmic Photo Prompt.

What you see above is part of a rather large sand turtle that lasted about a day at Myrtle Beach before the tide washed it completely away.

Below is a flower painted under a bridge that went over a brook for trains passing through an Illinois forest preserve. The forest trail following the brook went under this bridge. The graffiti kept changing over the period of time I walked that trail. I imagine by now that flower, like the sand turtle, is no longer there.

Whispers and Echoes recently published a 100-word story of mine called Spotting the Heretic. I am grateful to the editor, Sammi Cox, for selecting it. If you would like to submit very short stories or poems here are the guidelines.