We watched the egg for decades, but no one would predict what emerged from the hatch.

“Take my wings and bring my cape. Today I choose to fight.”

She took him under her wing
only to discover
that he was just another plucker.

I wished on a shooting star that it would run out of bullets.

Escaping captivity proved easier than he was led to believe.

The most exotic angels rise from the ends of caterpillar lives.

“Raise your hands when we jump, and we’ll lift each other over the puddle.”

For so long, I couldn’t shake the feeling of déjà vu,
then I realized—it’s because I see myself in you.

Kyra the loner prefers the stillness of empty rooms. Fortunately, she is unaware of the spirits who prefer her.

I have traveled for days on a lost train of thought.

In the dark, I light a candle and the monsters see me better.

We carry the places we’ve been inside of us.

for brookeduckart's Zebra Tree

Walking in April,
the whirl of white butterflies I think I see ahead of me
is only the wind lifting fallen petals.

Savage mice overran Matilda’s home until she built a better mousetrap and attracted a more elegant class of rodent.

The giant oak admired the little wood house from afar for decades—her build, the way she kept up her looks. A big storm brought them together, finally. It was a bittersweet meeting.

You can't have your tree and read it too.

-Inspired by Books of Tiny Stories by CassyFrance

Days spent deadheading meant nights spent blooming.

-Inspired by Gardening by aamanddacc

Innocence wasn’t lost; it ran away to join the circus, which proved to be far worse.

Inspired by Who Killed The Rabbit?...

The poet repeatedly rode the train staring out at the writing on the walls. When he stood to recite what he had learned, the mime grabbed hold of his tongue. They are still wrestling inside the ...

Fire debuted in the war museum, mingled in the aisles of the dress shop, married the gas station in an explosive affair. As often happens, they lost the spark and it ended in ashes.

The town commissioned a sculptor to replace a grove with stately tin trees. The wind turned the sculptures to whistle that mustered an army of dragons. In the end, all that could be seen from th...

Dad:   
“I haven’t seen that before.”

Mom:
“No. I bought it to bury him in, but if he’s going to be around...

Fears not faced cause loss of face.

…the sound of one ending being written for billions of stories.

He wanted to believe that bubbles didn’t die
and that their souls rejoined the air.
Though, he could ...

It was then he realized—compared to the grandness of nature, he was nothing.

He got lost in thoughts so cloudy that he could not find his way out again.

In heart language, “sad music” means “lost treasure”.

Knowing what we were,
he stood by me through the rain
and our destinies bled together.


or


Knowing what we were,
he stood by me through the rai...

The world began when he first opened his eyes.
When last they close, so the world goes.

I felt at sea
when our love broke
and we floated apart,
then you returned to me
and we put it back together
by heart.

Little did she know that Gerald had not left their apartment after all
and was waiting, naked, behind the shower curtain
with a rose clenched between his teeth.

Everyone believes she fell—

rescue is the true misfortune.

Her happiness lives in the dark

deep

quiet

isolation.

&nb...

The line between here and hereafter is really a circle.

Dancing brings her out of her shell.

I wanted to make believe, but I ran out of faith.

Earth and Moon dance so close for so long—they cannot look each other in the eye.

when i am
a bull
i will marry
a matador
&
our children
will ponder
labyrinths

Home is between held hands.

Leaving
hurts less
than what I leave
unsaid.

 
OR


The fact
that you left
hurts less
than what y...

Relieved of his burden, he struggled to redefine himself.

The work was grueling, but he stayed for the music in the widow’s laugh.

I saw a spider caught in a tangle of my fallen hair, stealthy as a Trojan horse.

Seeds of scattered starlight sow the moon.
We cultivate with our eyes night after night
and when it is ripe, we take a bite.

In spite of performance enhancing efforts, the pressure to keep ahead of the rat race led Abner to early burnout. The rats, however, took advantage of his frailty and trampled his ambition to sh...

Convinced that his beloved Golda had only been sleeping when she was tragically flushed, Gilbert prepared to rescue her from the underworld.

_______

Wr...

Miss Triangle was feeling unloved, so she got implants and became a Heart.
And became lonelier than ever.
Friends think she missed the point.
Two, actually.

Theater happens nightly
as cars curve past.
Headlights place the players
on the bedroom wall:
bed knobs and lampshades,
oak arms and picket posts.
A momentary...

Midmorning,
the penned dog that always barks,
jerks out of sync
with the mailman’s misshapen movement.
They dance within a grid on the sidewalk—
one fast,...

The tired day bows to rest,
extending fingers of darkness at her feet.
Frustrated, the photographer captures
without touching.

We are prisoners of our story. Freedom is in the telling.

Once,
Death was a baby
in a deep-hooded Onesie,

unsteady on its feet,

curious about the rattle
coming from our throats.

The lullabies of dragonflies
are stronger than we realize:
Their winged harmonies hypnotize,
and while we sleep, our bodies rise.

After the disappearance of his twin, he felt useless and empty inside. He never went into a Laundromat again.

He only wanted to help, but was always judged by the coarseness of his helping hand and the pocked skin of his kindness.

It only takes
   being misted
      with a single human sneeze
         for a poisonous mushroom

His body free, the prisons of his mind hovered.

I lost my love for you then I found it at the bottom of my heart.

                &...

After all that’s been written and said
about creatures in closets and monsters beneath beds,
after all the questions of “Are they real or pretend?”
and &ldquo...

Monsters never leave; they are left behind.

“Sometimes I can’t hide my wild side,” she said, shedding her rooted skin to dance barefoot again.

She never knew, when she planted her dreams, that they would grow into nightmares.

Often, they would lie awake at night worrying that they had let environmental issues overshadow their commitment to pacifism.

In the tiny town of Tabletop, the tiny plastic passengers wondered as they traveled in circles inside the tiny train, about the sudden total disappearance of the Jones house.

“I know he won an award for architecture, but his new stuff is over my head.”

    &nbs...

I think these lines from “the lies of small things” by thatisnotveryravenofyou go well with Afortune906’s portrait image.

I think these lines from “the lies of small things” by thatisnotveryravenofyou go well with Afortune906’s portrait image.

Someone stole my dreams while I was awake, but it’s okay—they’ll only play inside my head.

       ...

Sometimes my dreams carry me so far I have trouble finding my way back.

We called it a hug, but really…you stopped me from falling.

or

We called it a hug, but we both know you stopped me from falling.

We mixed sunlight with moonlight and made twilight.

More and more, I find it easier to live with my questions than face the answers.

We built a snowman out of cement so that he would live forever.
He melted anyway that summer, and we used him as a swimming pool.

I wish I’d thought about now then as much as I think about then now.

With hung heads, they admitted that none of them was blameless.

They hid themselves behind separate walls, waiting for life to begin.

And though they found the courage to answer love’s call,  

even when they went out, they st...

Many times, she tried to reclaim the magic of her childhood,
when closing her eyes made her invisible,
ordinary doors opened into extraordinary places,
and tea party guests sip...

Her harsh words pierced deeper than arrows.

for sojushots' "BULLY"

Achilles was a bully, but she had only one arrow,
and he had many heels.

for sojushots' BULLY

It makes me really happy when you tell me
that your love for me is like fire in your veins,
that I take your breath away,
and you couldn’t live without me.

Is...

Petting zoo life is perpetual fawning.

or

Jasper resented the confinement of the petting zoo, but reveled in the fawning.

Haley hurried to catch the train before it left her imagination.

It wasn’t that there was no way in that caused their doubt,
but that there may be no way out.

or

No easy way in fueled their doubt; more troubling was ...

The weight of her wishes brought down the stars.

In the quiet of space, angels witness the birth of a universe.

After traveling so far, they were disappointed to find the black hole so literal.

The message is their mission.

or

Their mission is the message.

For KenSa’s “my train on the wall”  

“They’re sure to let me draw on the museum walls now that I’ve finished art ...

Because patterns within patterns often go unnoticed, he deviated.

Having decided the inelegance of creatures with horns,
the world rejected the possibility of unicorns.

She had been thinking with her eyes closed, only seconds before, that the rain sounded like applause.

Dear John,
If I hurt you, I’m sorry. You see,
I passed through you on the way to me.

for Dotunfolded&rsqu...

Fanciful things follow her home from dreams, and until she forgets, she makes them her pets.

or tinier:

She makes pets of t...

They found planets among the ruins.

“It’s just…sometimes I feel the magic has left our relationship.”

"Why do I have to learn to color inside someone else's lines when I can make my own?"

The creepy campfire tales they told lingered long after the fire went cold.

In mourning, they hoped to leave darkness behind…
but it followed.

***

They faced mourning, dragging their darkness behi...