Notices by Steven Cudahy (stevencudahy@mastodon.scot)

as if reality
ends at our skins
they claimed
we should engage it more
as if we aren't spent
rock-boned
sludge-blooded
maelstrom'd of mind

as if reality
has to be shareable
but portable
for ease of capture
treasure hoarded
to end sharing

and if reality
could be touch-gifted
what would they do
when we kissed their lips
and gentle mountains
collapsed upon them

#SmallPoems #Poetry #Writing #MastoPrompt 1 May 2024 - engage.

I crept into the studio. The old Steinway was scattering notes through the building and I'd followed the trail from my office. A hunched figure sat at the keys. It hit a wrong note and stopped, sighed, played the part again, slowly, over and over.

"In or out," the figure said.

I moved closer.

"Never could get this bit right. This was my piano, you know. Originally."

"It's from 1864," I whispered.

"Well, practice makes perfect."

#wss366 - practice.
#MicroFiction #SmallStories #TootFic

every
single
person
who has ever
fucked me over
looked like me
had pale skin
was born here
wore a uniform
or a suit
and fitted right in
every
single
person
who has ever
stolen from me
was successful
exemplary
loved the flag
and was wealthier
by far than i am
forgive
me
then
if i refuse
to hate
the people
i'm expected
to hate

#Poetry #Writing #MastoPrompt 8th February 2024 - foreign.

make your five jobs work
but why is that how it is
who does this work for

#575prompt #senryu #haiku #poetry #SmallPoems #Writing

With thanks to @aethelshane for the prompt - 319 - hustle.

no one says anything

later, we forget
exactly where the grave was
if that's not too grand a name for it

a scrabbled hole in sun-cracked soil
scraped with sticks
and the rusty trowel we found

dusty tiny corpse

did we all dream something
in that blasting heat
reddened and irritable
but still capable
of hope

perhaps that shadow of quick wings -
remembering through act -
that fever dream wasn't mine alone
and so worth something

#Poetry #Writing #vss365Today prompt - 11th December - volant.

and the sky was art
remember
it looked intentional

one of us
was stung by a bee
in the aching afterwards
hidden in long grass

like petrol
on a puddle
that sky
raw bleeding poppy
through bruised fushia
lightening to lavender
on its way to bluebell

we found the bee
a gorgeous little furry corpse

"perhaps pollution"
one of us said of the sky
as if we even knew what that meant

we buried the bee
beneath the gentle grass

#Poetry #Writing #MastoPrompt #vss365Today prompt - 24th Nov - lavender.

the whole of you gone
shadowed in raw folds of cloud
pale moon resurrects

#575prompt #senryu #haiku #poetry #SmallPoems #Writing

With thanks to @aethelshane for the prompt - 295 - renew.

i'm everything
stars had no use for
the waste product of a cosmic joke

against the deep blue you can see them laughing

and so
here we are

enough, maybe
for now

so small in the blink
of our quick borrowed carbon
fuzzy energy
ambling

but how are you everything
and how do you convince me
i'm anything and something
and not nothing

for a blink
give or take
for the space and time
of a smile

Thanks @FrostPoem for the prompt - complex.

#MicroPrompt #Poetry #MicroPoetry #Writing

slow to get the point
sleep deprived
my laughter mania-trimmed

what was hiding in the darkness
when i was a child
was preferable to nothing

at least a monster
would wake me for a reason
unlike my traitor mind

and so here i am
fuzzy and out of focus
to myself

Thanks @FrostPoem for the prompt - dozy.

#MicroPrompt #Poetry #MicroPoetry #Writing

let's leave a pile of words here
i don't know if you need them
but look-
they fit together
whimsical velvet owlflight swoop
or focused 'how are you?'
a re-run race round rubies radiant ribboned
machinery to build a house from skeins of clotted letters
spiders dancing in snow
or my hand open if skin will help
infinite opportunity
no spells here though
just play - you choose
and okay, if we're lucky, yes
magic(ish)

Thanks @FrostPoem - tact.

#MicroPrompt #Poetry #MicroPoetry #Writing

dash the ivory flood
across the kitchen floor
and the glass turned to diamonds
or the fangs of an ice dragon
no one is crying over this
a plate is next
combatants revelling, almost
in a release neither wants
to admit enjoying

forgotten by them
beneath the table
too scared to chance
that distant crashing thunder
and howling storm
the white blood
of the ice dragon
is reaching
slowly reaching
for me

Thanks @FrostPoem for the prompt - milk.

#MicroPrompt #Poetry #MicroPoetry #Writing

days eat their own tails
and i think each time
if i can just sleep
if i can remember a ring
made from daisies
on a summer day
before i dreaded
the cycling crushing
repetition

as a child
i often dreamt of bread
within which lurked living wires
which would infest my body
coil round my heart
when i took a bite
eventually they escaped my dreams
and my waking became haunted
instead

and so it continues
yesterday eats tomorrow

Thanks @FrostPoem - ring.

#MicroPrompt #Poetry #MicroPoetry #Writing

every waking is a shock
as if sleep is forgetting

four-something if i'm lucky
and adrenaline everywhere

sitting on the bed edge
sorting which splintered ghosts are real
and which are real, but dreamt

reassembling myself
because

i'm not sure
habit, i suppose

monsters were no easier
when they were under the bed
than now they share my skin

though as a kid
i wasn't afraid to ask for help
and still believed it could come

Thanks @FrostPoem - early.

#MicroPrompt #Poetry #MicroPoetry #Writing

i don't remember
declaring war on my heart
but what else explains
the violence i do myself
laying siege to its chambers

Thanks @FrostPoem for the prompt - heart.

#tanka #MicroPrompt #Poetry #MicroPoetry #Writing

distilled from the blood of others
this thing you get showered with
big shining teeth
and hunger insatiable
raise the glass, toast the past
prove yourself an ass
drink the weakness of the weak
as you ooze among them
while the strong are buried in early graves
if they're lucky
named on lists somewhere
perhaps even carved in cold stone
if recorded at all
drink deep the gilded light
drink the glory
i hope it chokes you

Thanks @FrostPoem - glory.

#MicroPrompt #Poetry #MicroPoetry #Writing

delivering
six prompt poems
per day

is much harder
on some days than
others

my creative
machinery
falters

near exhausted
and yet doesn't
quite fail

perhaps i'm just
bloody-minded
enough

to keep pushing
against the tide
hopeful

although for what
i'll admit i
don't know

Thanks @FrostPoem for the prompt - delivery.

#MicroPrompt #Poetry #MicroPoetry #Writing

Too long for character limit.

Also, it's possible this is the most nonsensical thing I have ever written. But I sort of love it.

#Poetry #Writing #MastoPrompt #vss365Today prompt - 21st October - see.

please don't trap me deep in the dark earth
to come visit and mourn my past worth
place no stone on my head
to make sure i stay dead
showing name and dates of death and birth

Thanks @FrostPoem for the prompt - inscription.

#limerick #MicroPrompt #Poetry #MicroPoetry #Writing

is it beverage
or meal, kitchen chimera
tasty confusion

Thanks @FrostPoem for the prompt - soup.

#MicroPrompt #Poetry #MicroPoetry #Writing

the breath when it's done
regardless what 'it' might be
is the day's best breath

Thanks @FrostPoem for the prompt - relief

#MicroPrompt #Poetry #MicroPoetry #Writing