Holy Warriors
By: Maranda Russell
Holy warriors
learn a lesson
today.
Their distorted agenda
rightly condemns
one righteous man
setting a fire
beyond their own
narrow audience –
but – to the best
of my knowledge –
this will be
a one-time exception.
I enjoy taking prompts and writing six word stories. I find it challenging to come up with something truly original and attention grabbing with only a handful of words. Here are a few more I wrote just for fun:
Prompt: Quarrel
I often quarrel with my squirrel.
Prompt: Introduce
Introduce me to your soul asylum.
Prompt: Wake
Wake me up, slow me down.
Prompt: Room
Is there room amidst your gloom?
Prompt: Bridge
Build a bridge. Don’t jump off.
I feel like most of these have at least a general association with mental health and mental illness (not surprisingly), even though that wasn’t planned. You are welcome to use these prompts if you wish to have some fun and play with words!
Cook Me With Tenderness
By: Maranda Russell
Clever,
and not yet
without tricks,
I seem to
only disappoint
you further.
But I beg of you,
don’t roast me –
just smash me to bits
and cook me
with tenderness.
Poured Out
By: Maranda Russell
Why do I feel like
my poetry sucks?
I try to write,
only to find myself
empty,
poured out like milk
and starting to
curdle.
I must admit that I stole these 6 word story writing prompts from one of my favorite WordPress bloggers, Therapy Bits. I’m not sure where she gets these prompts, or if she makes them up herself, but I thought they looked like a lot of fun, so I started borrowing a few of them just to see what I could come up with. Personally, I tend to think of these 6 word stories as a minimalist form of poetry, even tighter and more concise than haiku.
So here are a few of the prompts and what I came up with:
“Curves”
Her curves couldn’t outweigh her personality.
“Belief”
To hold a belief is self-delusion.
“Doll”
One doll, with third degree burns.
“Mundane”
Mundane, but still better than Monday.
“Maddening”
A cat is a maddening creature.
“Offer”
Make an offer, I can refuse.
“Plausible”
Perhaps plausible, but is it infallible?
“Rebel”
Rebel against your own poor expectations.
I hope you guys enjoyed this. Let me know if you did and maybe I’ll do more in the future. If you want to share any 6 word stories you come up with, feel free to do so in the comments!
Waffle House at 3am
By: Maranda Russell
Waffle House
at 3 am
is not the place
to make a scene.
It doesn’t matter
if your heart
is broken,
if your brother
just ran off
with your boyfriend,
or if you want
to punch
that smarmy cook
right
in the left
testicle.
Stringy hashbrowns
cover a multitude
of sins,
vanilla coke
softly bubbles
over salty wounds,
and once in a while,
raisin toast
can be sweeter
than revenge.
Church Abuse
By: Maranda Russell
The lace unravels.
The smaller holes
become bigger tears
as the candle wax
hardens on the soft,
satin cloth.
Prayers,
and pleas
and petitions
abound,
but the altar
lies irrevocably
ruined.
I am an emotional writer. I write from whatever my current point of view and mood dictates. Often my writing may be entirely contradictory or may not even represent my general consensus on a given subject, but is instead a snapshot of a moment in time.
Reading through my journal entries and blog posts may appear to be a debate between various personalities – and in a sense, perhaps it is. No, I do not suffer from some sort of multiple personality disorder, but I use writing to discover and decipher my own jumbled thoughts and feelings. When I start writing, I often don’t know exactly where it is going to go, what the end result will be, or what I will learn along the way, but that is part of the magic of the creative process.
Please keep in mind when reading this blog, that what is being presented is often unfiltered, barely edited, stream-of-consciousness prose that represents only a momentary glimpse of my overall experience of life. If you dislike what I write today, stick around, because you just might love what I write tomorrow!
Today’s writing prompt: If you were to write a message in a bottle, what would it say? Who would you hope finds it?
My response: “To whoever finds this, I was here. I lived. I loved. I hurt. I laughed. I cried. You will too. Enjoy the ride.”
I would hope it was found by a thoughtful young person who was just starting out in life. Someone who isn’t too cynical or jaded yet, but is mature enough to appreciate life for what it is.
