Go ahead, tell me one more time that you don’t know where he is, and I am pulling this trigger. I’m tired of games. You know, it’s actually convenient you wearing that mask. Now I won’t risk getting too much of your ugly face all over my new black marble floor. My wife hates when I do stuff like that. She’ll be pissed if she finds out I brought my work home. Only, this time she won’t be too hard on me. Because you my friend, were stupid enough to come here on your own free will. This is sort of like delivery for me. What the hell were thinking coming to my house anyway? To my private masquerade party? Then, have the nerve to drink my expensive booze and hit on my ladies. They are all on my clock you know? You got some balls, kids. I will give you that. OK, cut the bullshit. Where is Danny Champagne?
I wanted to let you know that I have been behind the scenes lately because of COVID-19. 2021 was off to a relatively good start there for a second, then, last week happened. Our province, Newfoundland and Labrador, has been ordered into an immediate Alert Level 5. We are forced into another state of lockdown just like last year when this horrible pandemic first started. Apparently, there was a cluster discovered that this time around involved mostly teenagers and a teenage party or two. I do not know the facts and I will not comment on it, but what I do know is the numbers blew up. They blew up because of that incident and I believe another clustery incident involving adults. After doing so well, we were losing our solid grip on battling this virus quick. And, the kick in the teeth. During the testing and contact tracing procedures, there was variant discovered. The B117 variant first found in the UK. That lead us to a special breaking news segment last Friday night and the leap straight to level 5. Again, I do not know any of those facts either on how that variant got here, only it the fact that it got here. We were advised that the variant is a super-spreader and 70% more contagious. So, we have our backs against the ropes which means the return of a bunch of heavier restrictions, single home bubbles, isolations, and extra caution about everything. The entire province is now faced with another go around with flattening a whole new curve. Our very own second wave with an added threat. Yay! 2021.
Alex began to walk slowly back in the direction he had just come from. As he did, he searched ahead scanning the area for his buddy who he could have swore was right behind him. He knew Marcus couldn’t have been playing around with him, he loved racing too much for that. He was extremely competitive and rarely loss at anything. It didn’t matter what they both faced off against. Still scouting for his friend, Alex passed the halfway rock, and as he did, he caught sight of what looked like Marcus’s foot poking out from a bunch of bushes. It seemed his friend might have actually bit the dirt. Had to be something like that. Whatever the reason, Alex was definitely going to have the last laugh now. Except, it was not going to be because he had finally won the race. There was that, but, there was also the fact that Marcus had to come all the way back to help his sorry ass. That’s another victory all of its own. There was a good chance he was hiding in those bushes up there trying to come up with an injury to fake in order to get the race declared a no contest. Realizing as much, Alex picked up his pace. He was not going to waste another second; he could not delay rubbing it in. Only, as he drew closer, he started to notice something didn’t look quite right. Marcus would have definitely begun with the excuses already. He would have sensed Alex by now. Crying “Do over”, or “Help, I tripped”, or his famous “I let you win that one”. Nothing. Instead, when Alex finally made it to his best friend, he was laying in the bushes faceup. He was barely moving. There was zero expression on his face. None at all. No look of pain, no look of shame, no crying, no laughter, no embarrassed excuse face. Nothing. He was completely blank. His eyes blackened, and his chest was moving up and down rapidly. He was taking in large deep breaths. One at a time, and releasing the air as if he were shushing someone for five seconds at a time.
I am just dropping in for a second. I have decided to tweak an already existing page on my blog. It’s for my poems. I’ve noticed from time to time that WordPress does some wonky stuff. While I was looking over mine the other day, I noticed some bugs like my pages cut off after a few “older posts” clicks. That affected my links and how much people could read. Damn you, WordPress! So, I went and created a page that links all of my poetry to one webpage and you can scroll all the way through them. One by one. There’s nothing worse than finding out people can’t see your stuff because of site issues.
Hey everybody, I’m going to get straight to it. This category is something I have been playing around with for a while now. The premise is I will take a photo I’ve found somewhere and draw whatever inspiration I can from it and write a short, maybe long story from it. Plus, I would like to offer the same opportunity to anyone who wants to follow my lead and use both the photo and/or story title as a prompt. I would love to see examples of other forms of inspiration. It doesn’t have to be a story either. It could be anything from a story, a poem, a song, anything your heart desires.
OK, here’s the beginning of this one for me. I have a few chapters done of this prompt, only I was too excited and reacted. I went with the moment and posted. #amwriting
Don’t forget to tell me what you think in the comments, and let’s see where this goes.
Enjoy!!!
SHE HAS NO PAST, YOU HAVE NO FUTURE # 1
By: Ash Douglas
Marcus, get up! Come on. It’s not funny. We have to go. Do you realize I needed to be home fifteen minutes ago? Not cool. You know, I’m going to be in deep shit again. My Uncle is going to kill me for sure this time. Marcus?
I went for a walk the other day along the beach. As I did, I happened to look down and notice my footprints in the sand. I realized something. Every day, I worry so much about the steps I need to take and less about the ones I’ve taken. Life is always about moving forward though we forget about how far we have come already. Each step a footprint in our own lives. Just a reminder to look at your life as a journey, not a race. – Ash
my lines are barren of words no one pays attention anymore I walk away to try and heal change those emotional bandages stop the bloody hurt when my lyrics are finally gone so will I like a blank page…empty death poetic is where these sonnets will live on for stanzas from the grave bare the richest fruit it’s then you see how poison being alive feels to a poet when from lips when it can’t be turning to the cover to remember from a photo remember how abandoned I was with an audience how forgotten I would become unless I use creation to keep me alive I’ll always be alone with my words even if they are never again repeated don’t repeat them for me
Earth To Ash 