Response – JSW Prompt 2-24-2020

Feel free to join in and respond to the prompt. Please try to keep your response between 200 – 250 word (recommended, not law). You can write a story, poem, essay, anything which strikes your fancy! Link your work back to this post so people can read it.

---

---

It was the endlessness of the miles which staggered him. Mile after mile after mile through the rugged ruins of the world which Once-Had-Been. Mile after mile after mile of wilderness reclaiming all he might remember if only he had the chance.

Nothing was the same, yet nothing had changed. He was foolish to leave the enclave, they said, but they didn’t understand. Their focus had narrowed in the years since the End to nothing more than that which they could see. Circle-Turning People he called them. Always circling around what was left; never remembering what Once-Had-Been.

A Visionary, they called him mockingly. A Rememberer.

Yet the dream memories haunted him like the random skeletons of what Once-Had-Been rising suddenly through the tangle of the wilderness, more forgotten with each vine and branch and wild-bush.

The mouth of the tunnel was barely visible, hidden behind years of trees and brush and deadfall. Far, far away he heard the dream-sound hum of tires on pavement.

 

JSW Prompt 2-24-2020

Feel free to join in and respond to the prompt. Please try to keep your response between 200 – 250 word (recommended, not law). You can write a story, poem, essay, anything which strikes your fancy! Link your work back to this post so people can read it.

---

---

JSW Prompt 2-17-2020

Feel free to join in and respond to the prompt. Please try to keep your response between 200 – 250 word (recommended, not law). You can write a story, poem, essay, anything which strikes your fancy! Link your work back to this post so people can read it.

---

---

Response – JSW Prompt 1-28-2020

Feel free to join in and respond to the prompt. Please try to keep your response between 200 – 250 word (recommended, not law). You can write a story, poem, essay, anything which strikes your fancy! Link your work back to this post so people can read it.

---

“What the….” Jason asked as he pulled the car over to the side of the road. The front lawn of his house was covered with limbs and debris. “Did a tree explode?”

“You have exploding trees in your neighborhood?”

“Apparently.”

“I wish our neighborhood had exploding trees.”

Jason looked over at her. “Really?”

She looked at him seriously. “They would protect us from the Maurding Marchmonsters.”

His eyebrows raised.  “What do they have to do with all that… stuff on my yard?

Her look said it all. “Protection, remember.”

“From the Marauding Marshmellows?”

“Marauding Marchmonsters!”

“Oh, so no marshmellows?”

“No!” She crossed her arms and looked out her window.

He smiled.  “Do you think we can in past the exploding tree?”

After a moment, she nodded firmly and he parked the car across the street, stepping out and around to lift her out of the car.

She slid her arms around his neck.  “You won’t let the Maurding Marchmonsters get me?”

He kissed the top of her head.  “Of course not, baby,” he said softly, closing the car door with his hip.

Half way across the street, she was asleep.

Chincoteague and Pony Penning Revisited 2-13-2020

Tomorrow,  I will be visiting Chincoteague Island again. It amazes me how many people don’t know about Chincoteague and it’s ponies.  Then again, not everybody is horse-crazy. Still, it boggles my mind to think there are people who don’t know about the wild ponies, Pony Penning and have never dreamed about buying a pony at the auction.

Chincoteague Island is Barrier Island off the cost of Virginia. It snuggles up with

Assateague Island, shown in green. These islands have long been the home of bands of Chincoteague Ponies, most likely descents of Spanish horses stranded by shipwreaks. These ponies first came to fame in the fictionalized version of a true story, Misty of Chincoteague, written by Marguerite Henry. Subsequent books include, Stormy, Misty’s Foal,  Seastar, Orphan of Chincoteague and Misty’s Twilight.

Two separate herds roam Assateague, separated by a fence on the Virginia/Maryland border, totaling roughly 150 horses. The ponies are owned by the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department. Every July, the fireman, called ‘Salt Water Cowboys,’ round up both herds and swim the ponies across to Chincoteague. During the annual Fireman’s Carnival, foals are auctioned off to raise money to fund the needs of the Fire Department. Pony Penning began in 1925 and has grown in popularity ever since. People from across the US flock to watch the Ponies swim the channel, then parade down Main street to the fairground on the last Wednesday and Thursday of July.

Foals used to sell for low prices, making owning a Chincoteague Pony the dream of thousands of little girls, and boys, across the country. Compare this with the 2015 sale, where the highest sale price was $25,000, a new record. The average price of a foal last year was $2779, also a new record, and 61 foals were sold. The lowest bid was $500.00. This isn’t some little Podunk auction anymore. The sale not only provides for the needs of the Fire Department, it also ensure the size of the herd remains around the 150 mark.

After the sale, the remaining adults and those foals too young to be separated from their mothers, swim back across the channel for another year of sea grass and sand dunes.

For those of you not besotted by horses, this may seem rather boring.  To those horse-lovers in the world, however, Pony Penning is something of a Holy Grail, at least it has been for me. Many a year, I begged my parents to take me to Pony Penning.  Wise souls they were, they always refused.  Now, I understand nothing good would have come from taking their daughter to the auction and not getting a pony.

During the year, the Ponies live on the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.  Along with swimming at the beach, hiking trails or going to the top of the Lighthouse constructed in 1833, visitors can learn about the myriad of wildlife that lives on, or migrates through, the islands. The most exciting adventure for horse lovers, however, is searching for that rare glimpse of wild ponies.

 

 

All photos are in the public domain.

 

 

 

 

JSW Prompt 2-10-2020

Feel free to join in and respond to the prompt. Please try to keep your response between 200 – 250 word (recommended, not law). You can write a story, poem, essay, anything which strikes your fancy! Link your work back to this post so people can read it.

---

JSW Prompt 2-3-2020

Feel free to join in and respond to the prompt. Please try to keep your response between 200 – 250 word (recommended, not law). You can write a story, poem, essay, anything which strikes your fancy! Link your work back to this post so people can read it.

---

This week’s prompt includes the following:

 

A storm

An old oak Tree

A scar

 

and GO!

Response – JSW Prompt 1-20-2020

Feel free to join in and respond to the prompt. Please try to keep your response between 200 – 250 word (recommended, not law). You can write a story, poem, essay, anything which strikes your fancy! Link your work back to this post so people can read it.

---

 

And who wouldn’t? Enemies, yeah, I could carry on a bit longer, but I didn’t have enough friends left to lose any more. That was a week ago. Yesterday, I buried my last friend.

Life’s a bitch and then you die.

I wish I had that option. Being the living dead does things to you, like not being able to die. Easily, at least. Wasn’t like I couldn’t die, but of the few avenues open for my death, none sounded quick or painless. I’ve been told I’m a coward.

After burying Tony, I spent the rest of the night wandering the cemetery, but there was no comfort in cold stones or upturned dirt. Anyone I might have found comfort with, would have died.

Tony had been my first friend and, ironically, my last. He’d been my lifesaver. Without him, I’d have died the moment I awoke. With me, he’d died instead.

I’d always wondered how the world would end. Fire? Flood? Atomic bombs? Imagine the surprise when everything started to end due to the Undead virus. It was me – Me! – ending the world. Everything I saw, touched, tasted began to crumble to dust. Every person died. If I had known, I would have… what? Caused my own death? Hidden away, far from human civilization? Forever alone?

I am a coward.

Near dawn, I settled down in front of my grave stone, leaning back against hard, cold, stone.

Waiting for the sun.

JSW Prompt 1-28-2020

Feel free to join in and respond to the prompt. Please try to keep your response between 200 – 250 word (recommended, not law). You can write a story, poem, essay, anything which strikes your fancy! Link your work back to this post so people can read it.

---

Response – JSW Prompt 1-13-2019

Feel free to join in and respond to the prompt. Please try to keep your response between 200 – 250 word (recommended, not law). You can write a story, poem, essay, anything which strikes your fancy! Link your work back to this post so people can read it.

---

 

pix by csknotts 2020

 

The snow wasn’t deep, but the day was just beginning. By nightfall, it would be knee-deep if not deeper. I love snow, but not up to my knees, getting into my boots, soaking the jeans tucked into rubber. Today was not the day for that mess.

I had other things to do, things snow couldn’t stop. Time waits for no man, not even me. Especially not a man with a plan.

Shouldering my pack, I set out again, making my way through the trees, already tired. Next time, a smaller target, I promised myself, but kept going. I needed to reach the cabin by nightfall.

By noon, I’d reached the first lake and stopped for a rest. The snow was heavier now, falling faster and thicker, cutting my vision by half. I hadn’t planned on this lake, but I wanted to get home.

Dropping my burden, I clicked open the folding shovel from my pack and started to dig. By the time the snow melted, no one would ever know there was a grave.

Lake-side. A pretty view come springtime.