Imagination

PHOTO PROMPT © Lisa Fox

Maisie liked to lie on the bench in the park, gazing up at the leaves and the sky as clouds passed by. She pondered the black metal thing that rested on poles that were attached to the railing.

Maybe birds lived up there. Or fairies. Or both. Maybe birds, butterflies, and fairies. They could all fly, so they could all find their own food. Were there baby birds and butterflies and fairies up there? She thought about climbing up the poles to see. Then she thought about what Mommy would have to say about carelessness.

Anyway, more fun to imagine 🙂

Don’t Leave Me Here!

PHOTO PROMPT © Ted Strutz

‘Yeah, well, how’d you like to get stuck here until someone decides to move you? I mean, Susie left me here HOURS ago! I can’t reach the chair controls. At least when she leaves me in front of the TV, there’s something to keep me occupied.

“Pretty soon someone with a ginormous behind is going to SIT on me, get all mad and toss me onto the floor, like it’s MY fault!

“What a life.”

The Old Tree

PHOTO PROMPT © Fleur Lind

Tad leaned against Mr. Tree, his little arms spread as far as he could make them go. His tears trickled down the old bark. His ear was pressed against the tre

“Daddy says they’re going to cut you down, Mr. Tree. I’m so sad and sorry!”

Mr. Tree’s sigh came from deep inside himself, right into Tad’s ear.

“They’re ‘fraid you’ll fall and hurt somebody. You’d never!”

Mr. Tree’s sad eyes never blinked.

“Tad, look around. Other trees came from me. They’re young, like you. I’ve comforted lots of boys and girls. You’ll find another tree.”

“Never one like you!”

A Great Legacy

PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

There was a group picketing the store, carrying signs that demanded “Take it DOWN!”

There was another group carrying signs that said things like “Leave it Alone! or “If You Don’t Like it, Shop Elsewhere!”

Ellie wasn’t thinking about the flag and freedom, though. What caught her eye was the shirt and cap saying, “Protect Wildlife! Raise Boys!”

She smiled to herself as she remembered her own wild and wonderful boys. All were men now, rearing boys of their own and doing a fine job of it. Strong men rearing strong sons.

It’s a great legacy.

Patterns

PHOTO PROMPT © Susan Rouchard

Life is full of patterns. Sometimes we create them, like the tiles on the roof or the scrolling wires on a window.

Other patterns just seem to happen. A stack of books develops a zigzag, propped up by other zigzagged books endlessly leaning on each other for support.

In my living room, there is a plethora of patterns: The teapots on my mantle; the twisting cable in a scarf I’m knitting; the red and green plaid squares of a throw on my sofa.

It’s when the pattern gets disturbed that things fall into shambles.

A False Front

PHOTO PROMPT © Sandra Crook

All cities are more attractive at night, with the lights on in buildings and houses. Even the bridges seem like something from a fairy tale, and the reflections in the water lend a fairy-tale atmosphere. Makes a beautiful picture.

One doesn’t see, from a distance, the poverty; the people sleeping in doorways or on grates that provide a modicum of warmth.

Neither do we see the horrors of crime; theft, prostitution, murder and mayhem. Even crossing that bridge lit with fairy lights can lead to danger.

Safer to observe from a distance.

A Happy Place

PHOTO PROMPT © Dale Rogerson

“It was such a happy place,” sighed Anita. “I wonder why they closed it.”

Harold nodded in agreement. “I don’t know, but I guess things just happen. Maybe they couldn’t pay the taxes.”

“Remember when we danced there? So many happy people, such music!”

“Maybe we could. . . .you know, check into it. See if there’s anything we can do.”

Anita looked at him to make sure he was serious. He was. “You mean, like, we could rent it? Buy it? Reopen it? Do we have that kind of money?”

“We do. We can.”

The music played again for Anita.

OM-I-NUS!

PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

“Them clouds is ominous,” said Jake.

“Onimous? That’ere’s a big word, Jake,” said Lou.

“OM-I-NUS, ya eedjit. Ya’ll’er so iggorant.”

“So, smarty pants, what’s it mean?”

“Big. Scary. Like sumpin’ bad be comin’.”

“Don’t take no geneeus to figger ‘at out. We bin livin’ on this yere water all our lives, ya ol’geezer. Can’t ya smell what’s comin’ in?”

‘Course I can! But them’ere toorists is gonna get blowed away!”

“Well, then, we’ll have sumpin’ ta do, right?”

“Right!”

Dreams Do Come True

PHOTO PROMPT © Rowena Curtin

Little Kathleen daydreamed about horses and flowers. She dreamed about having both–lots and lots of both.

In her pre-teens, she learned to ride, and to care for the horses. She also started planting her own tiny gardens every spring.

As an older teen, she got a job in a greenhouse and learned more about propagating plants, caring for different types, and the business end of running a greenhouse. But horses were never forgotten.

Now? She’s out West, working on a ranch while she attends college to learn how to be a veterinarian tech. In the spring, she plants flowers.

Tchotchkes

PHOTO PROMPT © Fleur Lind

The overwhelming giant TV screen should have been the center of attention, and for some people it probably was. But Jilly didn’t care about the old clunker being dredged up from a lake somewhere.

She wanted to know who the people in the pictures were. She loved the multi-colored duck and the bear tootling away on his horn. She wanted to light the candles and populate the little houses with people from her imagination.

She pestered her grandparents about the pictures on the walls, and the fascinating things in the cupboard.

“TV is boring,” she said.