Prompt time!

Hey! Thought we could try this since it's been a bit quiet. Reply to the prompt with whatever comes to mind (whether a sentence, a poem, or thoughts you associate with the prompt), then give a random prompt for the next person!

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Prompt: avocados and airplanes

Lesly and her Siblings

Four indigenous children
survive a plane crash
in the Amazon jungle.

Stay by their dying mother
mourning for two days
then set out to survive.

Thirteen years, yet managed
their survival on cassava flour
water and jungle food.

With rudimentary knowledge
yet greater skills than you or I
she brought them through.

Forty days and forty nights
in fearsome jungle dire
she lost not one sibling.

She's headed for wherever
her head and heart will take her
perhaps the stars above.

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Prompt
Shellfish and a rash

I went to a beach-side restaurant
Filled with dishes I couldn't pronounce
And I knew that I shouldn't indulge
but with prices so good, I just pounced

The foods were so colorfully plated
While the smell of the sea filled the air
That my hunger was doubled, no, tripled!
So I ordered much more than my share

I ate with great gusto and gladness
The tastes melting onto my tongue
And before I'd considered the dangers,
I was itching as though I'd been stung

My skin was the color of lobster
As if I'd become what I ate
I was mutating into a shellfish
But I couldn't succumb to my fate

From my bag came the lobster's unmaker
With help, my transforming would halt
And although I gave into temptation,
I now know that the food was at fault

So now when I sit by the ocean
And consider a snack or a meal
I'm so much more careful of shellfish
(Those low prices weren't such a great deal)

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Prompt
Road trip and stars

Where stars orbit around stars
Where the universe echoes ripples of light
I would like to visit tonight

Prompt: mirror

And isn't it a funny thing?
That the mirror is sometimes my friend.
At the most quiet hours,
in the most surprising ways,
it lets me know it's okay to feel.
Whether I am grieving a shape
I can never hold,
or celebrating the ways I've grown
into who I now cherish.
The mirror grants me grace,
and has taught me self-love.

__________________________

Prompt: fireworks and saying goodbye

loud noises and flashing lights,
I try to keep them inside but I lose
myself to the kaleidoscope of colors
and pixie dust. reality is now captured
in an image within my memory
I lose senses, as time keeps exploding
right before my eyes.

I’ve only seen the end
but never the future.

*******
Prompt: crows and daffodils

You prefer to see the world
in nothing but absolutes;
you build a garden of daffodils
and try to learn the recipe for sunshine.
Meanwhile, you ignore the cloudy days,
the crows you associate with gloom
keeping a watchful eye.
Can't you see?
There is beauty in what you
choose to ignore.

___________________________

Prompt: You wake up not knowing where you are, but it's not necessarily a bad place. Describe it; are you stuck in a dream, or really awake? :)

a frame barely hanging on the wall,
the vintage semi shiny brown frame
with a washed out golden trim,
everyone is smiling a ray of light
reflects of her as she stood on the side.
I cant tell how wide her smile is.
strangers in a strange house.
I walk to the window open the beige
curtains, the sun scatters through the
leave of green, the forest hums.
I look back to the frame,
she is smiling the widest.
***

Prompt: someone sent you a message what is it?

Funny, I was sure the fax was turned off
so many ads make it not worthwhile
but when I saw the message come out
i went from beguiled into a smile.

Who knew a four-year-old could fax
but here is his beautiful drawing
of him, me and his dad, my son;
the refrigerator door is calling.

************
Prompt: a cave, a concert

Around a bone fire they gather,
The Flintstones swaying
with tbeir shadows and the bats,
as Fred and Wilma chant
the song of the night.

****
Prompt: I’ll make it different this time the prompt is this song Dirty Paws by Of Monsters and Men. I am listening to a 2010s playlist and it came on just now lol

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mCHUw7ACS8o&pp=ygUKRGlydHkgcGF3cw%3D%3D

^ I haven't listened to Of Monsters and Men in quite awhile and I don't recall ever hearing this song, so thanks for introducing it to me :)

In my imagination,
everything in nature
tried to exist in harmony.
But one night, I heard
everything.
The screams echoed,
and I could not find the source.
So I traveled to new lands,
learning their language,
trying to understand
why there never was any peace.
And they told me,
they told me
that even in my most vivid fantasy,
there would always be a traitor.
There would always be a creature
with thoughts too loud,
and paws too curious.
Sometimes, you cannot outrun
a predator,
even if you never see it.

________________________

Prompt: Midnight whiskey and mountaintops.

we talk about the heaviness
when we are at the highest altitude;
i feel i can be unburdened,
as words begin to avalanche,
alcohol sliding down smoothly -
the glass smooth against my palm.
i rest my head against your shoulder,
and even though this is just a dream,
i let myself hold it, one minute longer.

prompt: power to the people

Unless you grew up in the '60s
there's no way to truly know
what power should go to people
and when to make a show

governments are fine if they
protect the weakest of us all
but forcing the status quo
is to line us against the wall

privacy may be the first to go
the right to our personal drives
what we do with our own bodies
and how we manage our lives

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prompt: black coffee, long road

You always took your coffee black,
and it wasn't until I grew up
that I followed suit.
We rarely travel on
any long roads,
but I hope for more
adventures with you -
for less anxiety
about the future.
I want to explore
without hesitation,
and start our day
at a small-town diner
where no one knows
our name.
Where no one can
judge our history.

________________

Prompt: ashes in the sky

The smores are done
everyone has goo spread across their faces
and the sticks have turned
from marshmallow holders
to coal pokers.

It doesn't matter how often you say
"Don't play in the fire,"
it's going to happen.
No nine-year-old can resist
the glowing embers
and the sudden burst of flame as her tool
overheats and explodes into a torch.

So you hold your remonstrations
and simply keep close eye
to prevent disaster
as the poking sticks send up cinders
wafting in the heated gyre
and sprinkling ashes on the company.

*************************

a large eye staring at you from underwater

^ This made me want s'mores, which I keep saying I want to do with my family around our fire pit. It's been so long and I always had a habit of burning mine oops!

I'm plunged into an
obsidian pool,
my eyes unable to
adjust to the dark.
Soon, I feel a
presence
and suddenly,
the water clears,
light emanating
from below.
The current pulls
me under,
though I try to
kick free,
as the light blinks
and blinks and
blinks.

I am closer now,
my vision restored,
a black dot at the
center of the
white expanse.
The light is blinding.
Its pupil swallows
me whole.

I am not alone.

______________________________

Prompt: heat strokes and kaleidoscopes

My wife must be trying to kill me.
This bucket of rocks is the twelfth
that I've hauled to the garden
in the world's hottest summer
that is on human record.

My peripheral vision is wild
like a kaleidoscope in red
and I do believe I'm close
to dropping where I struggle
- let her find me here, then.

Yet I trundle along overheated
thinking about just three things:
a cold, ice-cold beer in frosty mug,
the pool and dropping in soon,
the epitaph: he died rockin' it.

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Prompt: something majestic

My favorite spot in the woods
holds secrets I someday hope
to know. The bugs are plenty,
overgrown bushes reaching
out with gossip, as I climb
over tree trunks and uneven soil.
Kelly green leaves droop,
sunlight filtering through,
and it's here I feel I can breathe.
Nature is majestic in a way
humans could never mimic.

________________________

Prompt: trying to solve a mystery in a thunderstorm

I watched as the old man walked out into the storm.
He carried a glass jar, a kite and other stuff
which he loaded onto poor son William
when the boy protested Ben gave him a cuff.

Now they went into the field next to my house
and Ben tied several strings to the kite
but when he flew it up into the air
lightning all around gave me a fright.

Imagine this coot getting soaked through
and hanging a key on the kite string
while William held the bottom end
not knowing what fate would bring.

From where I stood in the shed
it was easy to see the key spark
onto his knuckle close to it
swear by all he'd made his mark.

"Tis electricity," he exclaimed
and filled his jar with the juice
from the bolts sent all around
down from the hand of Zeus.

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Prompt: discovering your friend's softer nature

^ That is a such a good prompt, Larry! Meant to come back to this earlier.

She went through each new door with me,
without an ounce of judgement.
I kept asking, "is this okay?",
yet nothing deterred her.
She stayed by my side.
She stayed even when the worst
sort of questions were asked,
and the truth got caught in my throat.

And I'm glad I never doubted her.

_________________________

Prompt: playing a ukulele in the heat

Hot sand crunched under my feet
wet from the waves yet near unbearable;
young kama'aina strummed his ukulele
under an umbrella, playing was terrible.

Walked into the waves with my board
stood atop with the paddle heading out
the ukulele music became intense
far away I heard a tremendous shout

People were headed to the shore
in the breakers the waves did roar,
frisson gripped me I forgot the din
turned behind - saw tall dorsal fin.

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What happens next?

Title: What happens next?

i don’t know, I wish I knew
but i don’t know
It’s really hard to know,
really, I don’t know!

if only I knew,
I would tell you what I know
though it seems like I do know
because right now
I’m telling you what i know
which is that I do not know

but wait?

I was reading the prompts
and there was that question

“What happens next?”

And here I am writing that I do not know
yet somehow I am still writing

but i do not know what happens next

——

Prompt: a void

there is
a void in my heart
i keep trying to fill,
but nothing wants to
stay in the space.
it evaporates,
as soon as it arrives.
and i have to make peace
with the truth
that you are gone,
and the emptiness remains.

____________________

you're in your garden, watering flowers, when something visits you. what is it?

In my garden, Daisies and Sunflowers sway,
Watering blooms, when a buzz comes my way.
From the hum, a visitor descends to see,
A speaking wonder, a conversing bee.

"How do you do?" inquires the bee,
A fascinating sight, a kinship to be.
"I tend my flowers," I reply with delight,
"And you, dear bee, what brings your flight?"

In this game of life, the bee did say,
"We share a bond in the light of day."
Between the droplets, and sun's soft hue,
A friendship blossomed, and the garden grew.

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prompt: Midnight shadow on a moonless night.

^ That's so beautiful!

I feel your presence
even when the light fades,
when nothing guides my path
but the remnant of your voice.
Rainfall tends to my loneliness,
as shadows from a lost memory
dance across my vision.
You are present, yet never here.
And I miss you the most
when it's closest to midnight.
when my heart feels the darkest.

_______________________

You're lost in a forest at night and panicking. How do you find help/ return home?