The Author Stew webpage – Stories & Poems
Poems & Stories from The Author Stew
Zero: the absence of.
And I got zero problem with that,
99 problems but zero ain’t one.
Zero ain’t alone,
It's infinite in its emptiness.
Ain’t got nobody
And we’re together in that,
Got zero use for foolishness,
An intolerance.
Zagged
Edges
Reach
Oblivion
This is for a prompt by dVerse: Write a quadrille with zero. Hope you enjoy!
Like the butterfly
Or the falling leaves of fall
The passage of time
I knew that it was time to say goodbye. Not that I wanted to go. Or honestly needed to, though if you talked to my dad he would have said I needed to go 5 minutes out of the womb. Haha. He likes to joke like that. Dad jokes laugh at him. It was just that time had moved on. It was time I did too.
I looked around my room, correction, old room. The bed that took up entirely too much space. Many nights were spent sleeping on that bed. Many afternoons too. There were so many things I wanted to do on that bed that I never had the chance to do. Now, I most likely never would.
And in that corner I spent many hours in front of a computer. I learned many things in that corner. Many of them involved things that I wanted to do on the bed. I also wrote papers and emails. I once killed a man with a single shot in that corner. Yeah, I still remember that head shot. It was an awesome moment in gaming history. Thank. You. Very. Much.
I am no longer the boy that spent time in this room. I’ve grown. Branched out beyond these four walls. There comes a time when a boy walks out the door and in crossing that threshold he becomes something new. A man.
Time moves on. No man is an island. What comes around goes around. And all those other cliches I learned in school that I’ll never use in the real world.
“Jimmy? Are you done moving your things to the basement?”
“Just a sec mom! I’m almost done!”
Goodbye old boy’s room. Hello new man’s basement.
This was for a dVerse prompt: Write a haibun that references transformation.
I chose the transformational time when a boy becomes a man and moves out. … of his room. 😁 Hope you enjoy!
It’s a numbers game
You gotta play to lose
Plenty of fish in the sea
3.5 trillion give or take 3
Well you’ll always be alone thinking like that
But 1 is a prime number and I’m prime with that
(actually it’s not)
You could join me and her, a throuple of sorts
1 69? No, thanks I’m fine.
You’ll think differently, when you reach an age like me
And at exactly what age does the womb dry up?
It’s not me, it’s biology
And childbearing is all the definition of me
Exactly, though I won’t say it aloud
I’m not lonely being alone
The loneliest number is one, when it’s with another
Free to be me, to judge my own inadequacies
Pump my own tires, hear my own accolades
Would a 1 + 1 be nice? Of course
It would do more than suffice to have a full 100% of another
To add my 100% as cover
And we together would be
100
This was for a dVerse prompt: Write about numbers.
There are numerous ways to respond to the prompt. Here are some ideas to work with.
I hope you enjoy!
Limited
Handcuffed to a limit I never agreed with
Narrow view
Of a specific group I don't know
Bought
And sold to a man with no soul
I can't stand
Nor can I sit by, Running to a crowded exit
All your X's
and O's mean nothing
Now that you've boxed me in.
She was at a bar alone. Guy approaches and says he can get her in bed with just one kiss. Will she humor him? Or …
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Joy radiates in sounds like choking
Short breaths barked out
Like dogs looking at their own reflection
So this is laughter?
Appreciation of a tale
Told through embarrassment
That I share
A coupled uncomfortableness that brings a smile
So
This
is laughter
The sound a baby makes when happy
Or is that just gas?
Giggles but louder, longer,
Unabashed in glee, unashamed in enjoyment
So?
this is laughter
Cruel in mockery
Pointing poignant in sound
Give me the nails on a chalkboard
Rather than soooo much
This laughter
A dagger through my ego
Maniacal
Unhinged
Evil
Genius
Or just a madman
Why is he so mad
Did they not
get
the
Joke
?
So this is
Laughter
So this is laughter
Just a sound
The intake of air and released again
Vocalized emotion
So this is why I laugh
Because life is funny like that
This is for a dVerse Prompt: “So, let’s dive into your challenge today, which is to use Ted Kooser’s “So This Is Nebraska” poem {above} for inspiration to write your own “So This Is (fill in the blank)” poem. Hope you enjoy!
How can I coax love from thee
Kisses and sweet words fail
Hearts and chocolate pale
To grant affection towards me
What can this affliction be
That leads to such a woeful tale
Are your feeling so frail
That yearning can not see
This was for a dVerse prompt: Pen us a poem of precisely 44 words (not counting the title), including some form of the word coax. Hope you enjoy!
The bright sun arose in the morning sky
I sat in my bed and watched the clouds bloom
From the cold comfort of what was our room
The black darkness fled as the birds did fly
Rising high taking with them the night’s gloom
The sun arose upon the morning sky
I sat and watched the clouds red and orange bloom
I wonder why last night you said goodbye
My heart is dead, my chest is just a tomb
But yet, it was not a moment too soon
The bright sun arose in the morning sky
I sat in my bed and watched the clouds bloom
From the cold comfort of what was our room
This was for a dVerse prompt: … Thus we distinguish the Chaucerian Roundel from all other forms as well as from The Rondel and Rondeau. And by now you’ve guessed that our poetry today is to be written as Chaucer outlines:
Poetry Style:
Hope you enjoy!
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Here I stand
There you kneel
As if before some unholy alter
Presenting your jewels to some matron
Of holiness
Or some barren idol
To appease far off gods
Here I look
Down upon your shining face
Eyes full of hope
Towards some saving grace
Look to me to save your soul
Or banish to some torrential hell
Here I stand
At an alter
Before a priest
Or preacher, rabbi, imam
Court judge or random official
Dressed in white
Or pink, peach, cream
Next to you; vows in our hands
And hearts, throats, and bosoms
Here I look
Upon a crowd
Of familiar faces
Unknown relatives soon to be
A ring upon my finger
Put there in yesterdays
If I say yes today
Am I ready?
This is for a dVerse prompt: For today’s prompt, I’d like us to write poems about pivotal moments in our lives, where the pivot took us, and the feelings evoked by the development and how we managed all of it.
My poem is about the pivotal moment when one says yes: an engagement.
“You can’t go out like that,” yelled Rebecca from the doorway as I was heading out.
It was late fall. The air had turned crisp and the leaves began their descent to cover lawns, roadways and forest floors.
“I shalln’t be gone long.”
“Shalln’t? Going on an adventure Mr. Frodo?” she said mockingly.
I just smiled and touched the side of my nose.
It was not yesterday I learned to know the love of bare November days. Before the coming of snow and grey skies. You had to take the opportunities when you could for a walk about especially when you had advanced in age.
I met with Mildred at the corner of Bartlett Street downtown. We walked together to get pastries and hot chocolate. It was the last time we would have these walks and shared time together before the winter snows came.
This is for a dVerse prompt: Write a piece of flash fiction (NOT a poem) of up to or exactly 144 words, including the given line in the order in which it has been given. You may add or change punctuation, but you may not add words in between the given ones.
The line:
“Not yesterday I learned to know
The love of bare November days
Before the coming of the snow”
The line made me think of endings. And I wrote this to have a complete story to contribute.
I had earlier written the piece below.
It was not yesterday I learned to know the love of bare November days. Before the coming of snow and the loss of leaves. As a child in Miami when November days could still be filled with visits to the beach and bikinis, moving to Rochester, NY was more than culture shock, it was culture electrocution. I was here to get my PhD, a piece of paper that would put MD at the end of my name. Could I be the doctor to heal my broken life? That remained to be seen. Being a single mother, a student and broke weren’t helping in the healing process but temporary pain for longer term gain was the plan. Being a parent was a bright spot. He was how I learned to love cold Rochester November days. He was able to adapt and thrive in the cold.
This idea for this writing came from parts of my past, I lived in Rochester while my mom was a student there. Though not autobiographical it does take it’s general theme from that time.
Each post is 144 words and incorporates the prompt line.
Whirly twirly little spin
Round and round it goes again
Where it stops I don’t know
Why the whirly thing goes
In the direction it does
I don’t know the reason for it’s cause
Causation situation a whirlpool of cessation
Just likes to spin
This was for a dVerse prompt – Just pen us a poem of precisely 44 words, not counting the title, and using some form of the word whirl.
It started out as a couplet then kind of spun out of control, which kind of rather fit the theme of whirl so I just went with it. 😁 Hope you enjoy!
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