Prompt: ABC Poem/Prose/Whatever

Amidst all the winds and shadows and walls of the garden
Blossomed a shy petunia with small petals and curved eyes
Crunching dead bulbs, the squeals of someone small
Delighted the castle.

Eventually, time lapsed, lapped away shy eyes with a
Fierce smile and jutting bones that sprung thorns
Germanium coated her spine and that made her precious
(Harbors sailed boats to her seas and crashed against fortress walls)

"Ignorant young men will always think you lesser; weak and small and frail." her father told her, eyes serious.
"Just remember that their underestimation will be your greatest advantage."
Kill them with compassion and understanding and everything good they would rip from your lungs and heart and eyes, he reminded her before she departed.
Let them believe.

Marmalade words washed away the grime of living a life
Nomadic and brief and beautiful like all mortality is
Observant and reserved, she questioned the hearts of many
Preserved in locked away spaces

Quietly,
Remembering a childhood devoid of a gentler touch
She asks herself if violence can exists along the same
Threads of a kind word, or gesture

Under lies is the truth?
Violets wrapped around her hair and hands and legs, strangling her with the devout love of something divine
Wise are the fools who listen and fools are the wise who deafen themselves

You are neither! the wind hissed
Zeppelins careened to fiery graves overhead

Cycle 2 Prompt 1: Found Poem

To disarm is not to conquer

but ready, aim; does not stand

for a queen reduced if

caution from eight feet back is

Free

Extinguish paper and sweep fire to

self-reliant few who

spit electrical permanence like

government policy

Costs out of sight incite

careless injury

and what a waste a mind on fire

if it incinerates emergency like

(audio-visual) storms

Cycle 2 Prompt 2: Time Traveler's Log; Episode 2

It's the gentle serenity that lulled the senses into an easy calm.
It's the calm before the storm, they say.

-

The first warning should have been how quiet the skies were just before dawn.

-

The sun didn't shine the next day either. It seemed almost eerily foreboding, that the unease of the area be heightened by a subsequent entering of bad weather. Summer storms were persistent realities but hope beyond hope had yearned for their absence to prevail until departure.
A gentle wrapping of fingers against glass gently rung throughout the massive dining hall.


"I'm predicting that I'll leave tomorrow."

Blood welled from a worried-away spot inside the lip, skin roughened and raw.


-

Tomorrow came.
The watch shown a brighter green, clear and bright in the dim hall.
Hastily, fingers madly scrabbled at logging in a location. A minor glitch in the powering circuit and nothing. It sputtered obscenely as all haywire tech tended towards- a warning message, viable options, before a heaving sigh and death.

"Oh no."

-



-
That night faint, distant growls carried across the night- low and hissing, trailing, murmured. And moving.

Prompt 1:

What are people if not
Constructs in a dream wasted

in waking life, what are they
if not molds to shape in dire image
Of something more human but less humane

Prompt 3: Time Traveler's Log; Episode 1

The sound of pencil scratching against paper softly hissed amidst the dank air and smoky view. Quiet footsteps billowed dust and ash into stagnant clouds, lightly staining the landscape. Cluttered with debris and barely-there structures, wild flowers and weeds reclaimed the environment. Trees' roots nestled themselves along support beams and hugged cables and strangled skyscrapers. Ivy choked the sun from plants too small to reach sunlight, and mushrooms ate the dead.
A pause in the writing was flooded by the quiet noise of soft breathing and clothes rustling against one another in movement.

"The range of decay has reached a plateau in this area. More plants begin to grow and small woodland creatures and prey have begun to reemerge. Predators seem to be more frequent as well. I wonder why..."

The sky, fogged with vapor and ash, shone light through a russet film. High noon saw the clouds thin and tainted. All was not well.

-

"Goddamn this thing" irritated, hand lightly tapping the side of the device. The green light refused to shine above a dull jade, making it impossible to use until it was recharged. Unfortunately, the silent rain scattering along the ground and overcast skies made that chance far into the future at no doubt the most inconvenient time. Typical of Lady Luck's interference.
Dusk approached lazily that midsummer day.

-

"They issued a warning for the entire county to evacuate within days. Days! Why didn't they order us to leave sooner! What is going on? What-"
The recording stopped there. Machine whirring idly, the switch is flipped off on it to conserve power. While many machines powered by electricity have since shut off, somewhere in between now and then some were converted to other means of power. Little things.
Kept everyone a little sane. Supposedly.
The tape recorder was put back on its shelf. Whoever owned this house prior must have been sentimental about family heirlooms. A scrapped television sat off in the corner next to a sturdy, weather-worn bookshelf housing tattered copies of medical journals mixed with popular best sellers and a few children's books. An authentic cassette player sat atop a DVD player and a disconnected house phone sat at the edge of the highest shelf, threatening to fall if its cord slid any looser.
Avoiding the overturned table and its contents, shoes cracked on glass shards and the pieces of a dinner set. Decidedly, the family must have left in a hurry.
Silence permeated the area.
No strongholds left.

Clicking the on switch to a smaller, more portable device, spoken softly as not to disturb the air, observations began.

"Day 3. I'm pretty sure that this area is relatively isolated from the original spread. I feel no symptoms nor are they present in any other organisms encountered. My pencil is running out of lead. I lost my pen. The watch refuses to recharge despite only a thin cloud covering. Is all as it seems to be?"

Pause. A small sigh blows dust in the air.

"I'm stuck for now until the clouds clear. I haven't encountered any dangers thus far. The skies still show signs of discolouration, yet the water is safe to drink and most power to the area has remained though to a smaller degree. Running water, leftover non-perishables, stuff like that. I found clean clothes, which is a plus. Wouldn't have to loot if i could just go back however, but beggars can't be choosers. Certainly not now.
Something doesn't feel right though. I need to leave as soon as possible."

Walking through the home, a hall leads to a couple bedrooms and a bathroom at the end. Picking the nearest room, it showed to be probably the youngest child, walls painted with bright colours and cartoon comforter set. Toys littered the floor. A long web stretched from the far corner to the ceiling.
Next room then. Hopefully.

-

"Day 5. It's raining hellfire and bricks. The last house was too leaky and now I occupy an apartment complex where someone's china cabinet fell through two floors. But the shower had warm water and there were less spiders. Victory? Yeah, yeah, I'd say so."

-

"Day 6. If I perform the rain dance backwards will the sun come out? I'll test that. Also, I'm running out of charge for this thing and I can't find the right batteries. The area hasn't changed much since I arrived, but... I don't know. Maybe just being here so for long has made me uneasy.
There's...something here. I can feel it. Whatever, maybe I'm just psyching myself out."

-

A distant, guttural wail pierced the night with a shattering pitch. The flutter of hundreds of wings beat the air into a cloud of panicked noise and fearful squawks.

We treat others like Ants

Outside, do you see a spider and
Ask it its life story
Do you question the circumstances of its birth
The welfare of its siblings or
The quality of its web?
Do you ask to be taught the intricacies of lure-spinning
Fly-catching, silk-walking prowess?

Then why stop on the road and ask an ant
Why it does what it does
Why it feels what it feels
If you view it as merely an ant