Danger Zone

CR99 - for 6/18/2022 -99 words

“We’d made a promise when we were kids that we would never see each other again. Yet, here you are on my doorstep and once again asking for help I cannot imagine giving you.”

“When I helped you bury that other friend of yours, I told you that was the last time. I won’t even loan you a shovel. Now take your sorry ass and ………….”

“Wait now. Let’s not get excited. No need to brandish such a large knife. You know what? Screw that promise we made when we were kids.”

“How can I help you old friend?”

___________________________

Since Charli,the author of this challenge,  used Kenny loggins' tune, "Danger Zone" as her prompt, I will follow suit and use it here.

Never Show Fear

 

Should he tell his mom he heard her on the phone last night?

 Should he tell her he knew someone far away threatened his life?

 Should he run to her, grab her, hug her; tell her everything is alright?

 Even at the age of nine, Mark knew the answers.

 His family always kept their eyes dry above their stiff upper lips.

 Never show fear.

 So he held back, restrained himself; quaking and shaking under his blanket until daylight.

 The next day Mark was on a plane to Florida to join his father who had just started a new job.

__________________________________

This is about a day I will remember as the first Reality butt kick I received as a child. My idyllic life to that point changed dramatically. The next four years in Florida only reinforced that Life was not just TV cartoons and comic books.

Lying Truth Reborn

Lying Truth

Facts injected with conjecture and foregone conclusions,

 Cast Truth aside in pursuit of knee jerked solutions.

 Lost in a sea of deception,

 Specious goals are massaged by lying hands,

 Replacing Honesty with Truth’s ugly step sister,

 The Half Truth.

 

 The Midway Squawkers and Snake Oil Salesmen

 Insist and demand the Half Truth into our lives

 Hoping their deception lasts long enough

 For them to cash in their nickels and dimes.

 

 Assaulted long enough,

 We allow recent lies to become our New Truth.

 Delusion casts itself in stone

 Brain dead populations dance around it

 Happy as if they had brains.

 ___________________

I first wrote this as a Flash fiction 100 word composition quite awhile ago. I have now converted it into a poem with some minor changes. It is no longer 100 words, it is now 99 words.

I thought given the current political moods clashing and thrashing worse than ever, re-posting it here and now might just impart how I feel regarding the current crop of leaders and their lackeys.

___________________

So I had no problem locating an appropriate tune for this post. 

"Lyin Eyes" by the Eagles will do just fine.

______________________

The Image at top is an enhanced photo taken in Stalingrad during World War ll. 

It is titled " Barmalej " (Children dancing around Crocodile )

God's Goat - CR99

Mary was not happy. Forty parasangs over two days on the back of an ass was the last straw. She glared at Joe as he placed fresh hay in a manger for the kid. A small goat watched and immediately hopped in the manger and pooped.

“Mary, the little asshole shit in Jesus’ bed.”

Busy unpacking the donkey, Mary did not hear Joe.

“What Joe? “

Louder now, “The goat shit in the manger.………  If the big guy gets wind of this I wouldn’t want to be in that goat’s hooves.” 

The goat looked up at Mary and bleated. 

______________________________

 Carrot Ranch Flash Challenge – 99 Words - Dec., 2nd, 2021

   Prompt - a story about the little white goat found in the Nativity Scene

Stay

Carrot Ranch FlashChallenge - 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!

"Stay"

His power over me has its limits. He thinks I can be manipulated by one word from him. I will show him who has the last word.  He is not here.  I will do as I wish until he comes back. Yeah, I will show him.

But what do I want to do?  So many possibilities, I cannot pick. Every choice looks like trouble. Better just follow his orders; it’s the safe thing to do.

“Alright Maggie, you stayed. Who’s the good dog? .......... Here’s a treat.”

I remember now why I listen to him. He is my whole world

The Deplorable Double Wide - 99 Words

Flash Fiction site, "Carrot Ranch Communications" does a weekly 99 word challenge.  This week's challenge (11/9/16) is "write a story that pivots around an unexpected ending".  

In lieu of watching the news, commenting on the news, and hating the news, I figured to give it a go.  Anything to take my mind off the nightmares that will haunt me for at least the next 4 years.

My effort this week:

The Deplorable Double Wide

Roscoe opened his eyes.  Disoriented, he took stock of his surroundings.  He was seated at a wooden table in the kitchen of a deplorable double wide.  

Where he was now was not the location of his last waking moment.  He was sure it was tipping shots and slapping backs with his Wall Street buds in lower Manhattan.  On the big screen, their guy was kicking ass. 

“Uh, Where am I?”

A pudgy hand with no wrist dropped a plate of Spam and eggs in front of him.

“Home, you dumass.  You got shitfaced last night cuz your man won.”

_______________________________________

There you have it.  

Keep it 'tween the ditches

______________________

*Cross posted at Lost in the BoZone