Tag: life

Flash Fiction, tutto e niente

Keeping it Real

Tina Stewart Brakebill

Mom always hated grandma’s house.

She complained constantly. “It’s like living in a funeral parlor. Flowers everywhere and all that ridiculously ugly gold crap. Hideous!”

Thankfully. Gran refused to change a thing.

Everything was old and kinda tacky but real. That’s what made it special. Her too. She was my safe place. A counter to mom’s incessant need to keep up with whatever was trending while claiming she was “keeping it real.”

So when I came home and found her cradling gran’s favorite gilded roses to her chest. I knew. I’d be keeping it real now. Like it or not.

gold-tipped-anniversary-rose

Written for Friday Fictioners. Thanks for the photo Rochelle.

Get more info and link to other Friday Fictioner stories here.

Haiku & Other Poetry, tutto e niente

Bearing Witness to the Folly of Man

Tina Stewart Brakebill

we speed to the end

unaware of the magic

held in the moment  

afterglow avian backlit birds
Photo by luizclas on Pexels.com

Thanks for the inspiration to Linda and her JusJoJan challenges!

And to No Facilities for the word prompt. I took some liberties and used “testify” as an idea (bearing witness) not the actual word.

Thanks also to Ronovan Writes for the words magic and man, which I morphed in to “we” (based on the assumption that man = human = we) because it sounded / felt like the right word.

Random Rants, tutto e niente

Inch Worm Angst

Tina Stewart Brakebill

This week! I yi yi! No wonder today’s Just Jot January prompt reminded me of this commercial from my childhood for the
Inch Worm Toy

Granted I was probably out of the target age but I had the same reaction then as I do now.

You’re getting nowhere on that ridiculous thing. Get off that stupid worm and run! Or walk. Or skip. Or even jump up and down. You’d make just as much progress but at least you wouldn’t be breaking that dumb worm’s back.

An overreaction? Yes. But this week.

I yi yi!

I won’t bore y’all with details. But I feel like I’m stuck on that damn worm. Striding with all my might. Getting nowhere.

I know I will eventually move.

Maybe forward.

Maybe backwards.

But at least I’ll be moving.

Meanwhile my notorious tendency to be inpatient is reeking havoc on my mind and body.

Time to remind myself: “this too shall pass.”

Venting session complete.

Thanks for listening 😬

Written for Linda G. Hill’s Just Jot It January prompt. Today’s prompt, “inch,” was suggested by John Holden at The Sound of One Hand Typing.

Random Rants, tutto e niente

Lazy Day

Tina Stewart Brakebill
selective focus photography of sleeping monkey on branch
Photo by Edoardo Tommasini on Pexels.com

The clarity of my ambition is often outmatched by the tenacity of my laziness.

I am feeling really really really lazy today, so thanks to Linda for the excuse to just Write One Line and to FOWC and Sheryl at One Daily Word Prompt for the word prompts (clarity/ambition) that perfectly fit my mood!

And oops-sorry I messed up the original link/name for the Daily Word Prompt

Haiku & Other Poetry, tutto e niente

Life

Tina Stewart Brakebill

the road tempts onward       

but deep down in the dungeon 

memories unspool

timelapse photo of trees with background of star
Photo by Free Nature Stock on Pexels.com

Thanks to Sue for her Photo Prompt. It inspired thoughts of our lives lived through time and what that means as we age. That thought connected in my mind with this great phrase–deep down in the dungeon–from Putting My Feet in the Dirt. And the haiku was born.

Thanks for reading and be sure to visit their sites for more info and some more fabulous work.