Carrot Ranch Literary Community ~ #Poetry

May 25, 2022 / Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes / 6 Comments

May 23, 2022, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story using the phrase “well’s gone dry.” Is it a real well or a metaphorical well? Why is it dry? What is the consequence and to whom? Go where the prompt leads!

I had planned this pilgrimage for a year
A sacred well, 140 mile walk
Could take a week
My father told me about it
To drink from it, brings good luck
I need some
The trek hard, my feet blistered
My back broken
The scenery beautiful
So many birds I had never seen
Camping at night, early morning pilgrims
Walking down, their faces grim
I thought little of it, except the walk had been tough
Then a couple told me the well's gone dry
I continued, disappointed, however
I was still hoping to hear the whisper from the well…

©AnitaDawes2022

#Flash Fiction Challenge for Carrot Ranch Literary Community

September 25, 2021September 25, 2021 / Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes / 3 Comments

September 23, 2021, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about an author’s chair. It can belong to any author. Where is it located and why? Does it have special meaning? Go where the prompt leads!

My authors chair is in a pub called The Drum.
It has a blue plaque with his name on, H G Wells
A man before his time, no pun intended
He sat inside with the likes of Lewis Carrol and others
Discussing their latest ideas
I would love to have been there as he wrote notes 
about what became my favourite film
The TIME MACHINE
How many would queue to sit in that chair
I would in a heartbeat
Push that crystal stopper from his brandy decanter
be on my way
Don’t look for me, I’ll be a while…

© Anita Dawes 2021

#FlashFiction Challenge for Carrot Ranch…

August 23, 2021 / Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes / 8 Comments

August 19, 2021, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story using the phrase, “stars in the sand.” Your story can be any genre (or poem) and can use realism or fantasy. It’s a dreamy prompt.

They told me that Egypt, the pyramids
Would be the holiday of a lifetime
Leaving the rain behind
Take off delayed
They forgot to load the luggage
Not a good start
We might have left the rain behind
The black cloud had followed us aboard
The hotel turned out nice, mood lifted
Next morning, with the tour guide
We made our way to the pyramids
Wow! They really are something
Somehow, I got separated from the tour
The sand dunes I found myself on
As beautiful as any painting
That’s when I found three lucky stars in the sand…

#FlashFiction Challenge for Carrot Ranch Literary Community #Poetry

August 17, 2021 / Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes / 5 Comments

August 12: Flash Fiction Challenge

The spiralling crescendo of roman candles
Shot towards heaven
Pulls an ancient knowing from my soul
Like a half-remembered dream.
I stumble forward for knowledge
That is stacked up behind me
Above my head, fireworks light the sky
The sound echoes in my bones
An old sound that never went away.
The colours remind me of something hidden
The lost pages of the grand grimoire
which have everything to do with
the last cacophony of sound
that will never be heard again.
the world will fall silent,
not if I get my hands on it
I will burn it…

#Flash Fiction Challenge for Carrot Ranch Literary Community ~ #Poetry

August 7, 2021 / Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes / 6 Comments

August 5, 2021, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about an open door. It can be literal or metaphorical. What is behind the door? Who is seeking and why? As the writer, how will you manage the discovery? Go where the prompt leads!

Honey, you left the door open
God’s doing that shining thing again
Does he still have the hump with you
For believing your own abilities?
For taking so many of his winged ones with you
What did he have to say?
The more I lift them up, to do their own thing
The more he will smite them
He is threatening floods, famine, plague
He has a nasty one up his sleeve
Says he’s been working on it for awhile
When the moment is right
He will arrange for a cock up
Many hands, but China will take the blame…

#FlashFiction Challenge for Carrot Ranch Literary Community ~ #Poetry

July 4, 2021 / Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes / 13 Comments

July 1: Flash Fiction Challenge

July 1, 2021, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about “the old photograph.” What is captivating about it? Where did it come from? How does it incite a story? Go where the prompt leads!

Photos, snap shots of time
You hold the past in your hand
Old memories flood in
The thing with old photos is
They slip between the floor boards
Multiplying, boxes under beds
On top of wardrobes,
To be forgotten
Until the day, your granddaughter
shouts out, Gran, who is this?
That’s your grandfather.
Now you are worried
Is he in the box or the wardrobe?
Your first love, the one you never forget
The one that would upset the apple cart
Wrong name on the birth certificate
Would bring up too many questions.
How to tell the truth now?

#FlashFiction Challenge for Carrot Ranch Literary Community #Poetry

June 22, 2021June 22, 2021 / Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes / 10 Comments

June 18, 2021, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story that features a solstice. What is the era and setting? Use the solstice as a celebration, metaphor, or talking point. Go where the prompt leads!

June 18: Flash Fiction Challenge

To call them stones
As if you could skip one across the pond
Is to belittle their majesty
I stand in front of them
Waiting for the sunrise
Wishing I could walk back
Through a living moment of history
To see the stars, fly by
To see the sunset and rise over it again
Until I reach the moment when
Salisbury Plain was just that, plain
To watch the first hole being dug
The upright slip into place
On around the circle like a child’s game
Of ring a ring-o’roses
I feel my heart beat with the rising sun…

Flash Fiction Challenge for Carrot Ranch Literary Community #Poetry

June 8, 2021 / Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes / 7 Comments

June 3, 2021, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story being leashed. Is it literal or metaphorical? Who or what is leashed. How does it set the tone? Go where the prompt leads!

Unchained by the skin I wear
The way I think always gets me
in so much trouble with other people
I don’t feel the way they do about things
I am the odd one out
There are days I feel so bad
about being leashed to myself
It is lonely, even with family
They do not agree with half the things I say
They agree with each other well enough
Most of the time I must pretend
Hide my true self from them
The others, as I have come to call them
For now, the leash holds me tight…

#Flash Fiction Challenge for Carrot Ranch Literary Community #Poetry

May 24, 2021 / Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes / 2 Comments

May 20: Flash Fiction Challenge

I admit I don’t like gardening, but
I like walking through other people’s gardens,
Admiring all their hard work.
I believe gardeners are a breed apart
Like the sudden sight of a rainbow,
Their joy is palpable.
Today, I am sitting on my porch
Overlooking my neighbours garden
He is new to the neighbourhood
In his mid-twenties, built like a Greek God.
The day was hot, I sat there praying
For a coco-cola advert to appear before my eyes.
He stripped down to his shorts
I reached out for a glass of cold water
Which made my eyes steam…

#Flash Fiction Challenge for Carrot Ranch Literary Community

May 1, 2021 / Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes / 8 Comments

April 29: Flash Fiction Challenge

Hit the road, Jack. Your times up
Life in the slow lane isn’t working for me
I need more. With you, it’s all or nothing.
It’s nothing. I’m fed up with holes in my shoes
Sleeping in bus shelters
Going hungry for days on end
I’m tired of your promises
It’s time for me to go my own way
found out this was not as easy as it sounds
When you have nothing, it’s hard to find anything
I found a friend who took me in, gave me a chance
Warm food in my belly. I will not mess up…