not my place
because nowhere is
falling upwards but still falling
not a safe place
no matter the signs
and smiling smiles
falling upwards but still falling
no control
how different from flowing wrists
and a floating foot
kicking rooms to dancing
falling upwards but still falling
silence after
abandoned breath
remember who i am now
falling upwards but still falling
alone in a full room
the classics are classics for a reason
#SmallPoems #Poetry #Writing #MastoPrompt 8 Oct 2025 - outsider
As the race finished, the rogue groaned. "Why'd you persuade me to pick the #outsider? That's the only time I've lost this year!"
"Bad luck, eh?" Pockets bulging, the barbarian smirked at the others, satisfied with the side bets he'd placed earlier.
Wall Street outsider
arrested for
insider trading
#MastoPrompt
group clicks together
abandoned outsider then
and now popular
The #MastoPrompt for Wednesday 8 October 2025 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoem #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
Yanna and Kiryl
#Fandom #TearmoonEmpire
#Spooktober
#Wss366 #MastoPrompt
Yanna crept down the alley, the curled brown leaves crunching underfoot.
She froze.
Although the alley was an excellent spot for sneaking up on someone, it limited her ability to escape. “No,” she thought. “That isn’t the problem.” The alley was too small for anyone larger than a child, a small one at that. Merger food had stunted her growth, but it was still a tight squeeze. The real problem was that if the merchant detected her, she wouldn’t be able to grab anything.
Yanna looked back and saw Kiryl’s face peering after her. She should have just told him no, that it was too dangerous, but she didn’t want to disappoint him.
She could still hear the merchant hawking his wares and the general bustle of the festival. The smell of roasting meat, pickled fish, and sugary treats tickled her nose.
“Oh, to be rich and have coins in your pocket! Not that I’ll ever be,” she muttered. Thinking of the fairy tales she told her brother, she added, “No noble will take pity on us, worthless lot.”
She began moving again, stepping carefully over the refuse tossed into the alley, memorizing the location of each heap as she went. When she returned, she’d need to dodge them on the run.
She stopped just inside the alley and readied herself. Outside, she could glimpse the harvest festival. Orange pumpkins, carved to resemble demons, decorated the booths. They were supposed to scare away bad fortune, including thieves.
“Gullible,” she thought, “and wasteful.” In a few days, she’d be scavenging edible portions from the rotting carcasses they threw out.
She took a deep breath and prepared. She’d have to move like a sparrow once she stepped out.
Then she did it! She emerged, grabbed something from the pile, turned, and dashed back the way she had come.
She was halfway down the alley before a cry went up. “Thief, thief!”
“Let them cry,” she thought. Those fat merchants, with their greasy smiles and insults, could afford the loss.
She reached Kiryl, and the pair of them pelted away, only stopping when they ducked into a hidden alley.
“Sorry, Kiryl. This one doesn’t have any honey on it.”
“It’s okay, sis,” Kiryl said, tearing the golden-brown elephant-ear in half and handing his sister the larger piece.
#NMV366 #SliceOfLife #Halloween #NMPrompts #MicroFiction #TootFic
grayscale event horizon
colour keening
from some bleak hollowed suck
massive boulder presence
shadow cast the length
of a disinterested buffet
people lean in in passing
skirting an ending
fearing dim slow compression
as if that craggy weight
won't avalanche later
crushing a no-shaped mouth
#SmallPoems #Poetry #Writing #MastoPrompt 7 October 2025 - elephant
#TimeTravelingGhost Part 47: EP 4: 1937 Amelia Earhart.
#Wss366 #MastoPrompt #TimeTravelAuthors 10/7. Something odd/weird you've experienced
We didn’t have to walk far before Amelia came into view again. She stood where the inlet met the sea. Creamy currents ran past her as the lagoon emptied. A signal fire danced in front of her. Its ghostly blue flames #curled and flickered. The exposed white coral behind her blended into her ethereal form. She appeared to be the spirit of the island itself: white coral edging a deep indigo ocean. It wasn’t the weirdest thing I had ever seen, but it was close.
Emily grabbed my arm, and we stopped. Turning to face her, I waited for her to speak.
“How are we going to convince her she’s a ghost?”
“I don’t know yet.”
She nodded. “We might not be able to do things like stop the Great War, but we can do little things, like freeing her.”
“We can do that, but there might be more we can do. Next, let’s find out more about the rabbits. I think they’re up to no good.”
She nodded in agreement.
#TootFic #MicroFiction #Serial #TimeTravel #NMTTA #NMV366 #Spooktober
i started making notes of lines around today's #mastoprompt #Elephant, and I accidentally wrote a sonnet...which has nothing to do with Elephants, other than perhaps the word 'memories.'
Not enough characters to write the sonnet here, so the text is in the alt text, of the screenshot of the sonnet, taken from my RedNoteBook
'A Distant Memory'
#Sonnet #Poetry #Poem #PoetryCommunity #PoetryWriting #WritingCommunity #writersOfMastodon
we don’t talk about
the elephant in the room
because voices carry
my children's politics
the elephant
in the room
#MastoPrompt
The #MastoPrompt for Tuesday 7 October 2025 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoem #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
such fallow grounds fall
fertile to the turtle springs
seasoned in darkness
under cover of darkness
turtle hatchlings
crawl to the sea
#MastoPrompt
The #MastoPrompt for Monday 6 October 2025 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoem #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
stillness and discarded shoes
and the click of the old clock
an empty hollowed bouquet
of rooms unused
and light like an intruder
caught out
and food in the fridge
to be checked and mostly chucked
most probably
clothes you forgot how to choose
like food or books or words
you couldn't disinter
or even if scrabbled from dirt
you couldn't work through
throat tongue teeth and lips
stillness and all your shadows
in all these rooms
all fading
#SmallPoems #Poetry #Writing #MastoPrompt 5 Oct 25 - zero
my day job
ones and zeros
signifying nothing
#MastoPrompt
