The little red shovel #philippines #poetry #dpchallenge

Red plastic shovel

held moments ago

favorite blue cap

on your sunshine face

crooked it sat

I am washed away

claimed by sorrow

you pulled

by the riptides of life

Both driven 

toward fate’s tomorrow

you toward the sea 

I toward the land

and I face the dawn

alone

embraced by the sand

Uncountable are the buckets of tears that have been shed by mothers who have lost their children. The mothers in the Philippines too well embrace sorrow as a well-known unwelcome friend.

This poem in its simplicity is another tear to add to the buckets…

Reality check: This post is a reflection that I am sharing with the  wordpress dpchallenge prompt  Frightening.  I was inspired to write this poem for the children lost in the claws of disaster in the Philippines after I saw the pieces of a child that were being picked up by police on a busy street corner.   They included a child’s red shovel and a little blue cap.  Tears poured from my eyes and I could only hope those things fell from a vehicle not from the arms of a child.

Here’s what other’s wrote:

1. The inequality in Gender Equality: A simply case of “Ladies First” | I am Mike Obiora
2. Frightening | The Magic Black Book
3. Daily Prompt: Fright Night | Under the Monkey Tree
4. Eek! Agggh! “Splat!” | Anniemation Floe
5. Cut it off.. | ayimas
6. Fright | The Nameless One
7. FRIGHTENING | thinkerscap
8. Light Scatters Fright … | Eyes to Heart
9. Fear is for Sissys | mostlytrueramblings
10. For A Drink I Can Conquer The World | The Jittery Goat
11. Daily Prompt: Fright Night | Awl and Scribe
12. Maybe If You Paid Me | sayanything
13. Afraid of the dark? | vicariously in love with you
14. Afraid of the dark? | vicariously in love with you
15. Frightening | JC Bride ~
16. Are you afraid of the dark yet? | vicariously in love with you
17. Fear takes baqckseat | crookedeyebrows
18. Daily prompt: Fright night | ferwam
19. alone | not4faintheartsblog
20. “Fright Night” | Relax

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Tear of a Star #shortstory #amwriting #flashfiction

They tried to capture it – my tear

The myth was if you caught one tear of a star you could rule the world.

But they got it wrong.

If you managed to get me, a star , upset I would not cry  there would be natural disasters

The world would vomit its dead, storms would come in like a tide,  the waves would get bigger drowning more people in waves of concrete.

If by chance you touched one tear of mine you would scream in torment.

For though nothing has happened it feels as if your entire body has been dropped into a vat of caustic acid.

Only one could manage a tear – my lover.

Loving arms wrapped around me would calm the waves, put out the fires, stay disaster.

His reassuring voice would put an ice cap on this inferno

As he laid me upon a green/ blue pasture in the universe as he brushed my hair,

I would be sated.

But that time has yet to come.

If by chance you meet this man

send him toward the end of the celestial grove.

For the hour grows late and my patience with humanity is waning

ire and mercury rises.

 

Stop the Shaking #Japan #oneshotwednesday

Have you ever heard it?

Felt it?

Lived through

IT?

***

I’m one of the lucky ones

a roaring train shook my country

rocked it to its core

not like the gentle sway of my crib

we no longer have a shore

***

Endless days

sleepless nights

don’t close your eyes

someone else may be gone

oh the pain at first light

***

stop the shaking

please things are breaking

mama’s dishes

papa’s bones

stop the shaking

Please

our

home

is

GONE

This is my poem for One Shot Wednesday. There is no form to it, no rhyme , little reason – so like the world in the Japan of today!! Unicef is there for the relief for Japan’s children.

Photography: courtesy of Getty Images / CNN News