Words Down Writing Prompts - 3rd October 2022

 One minute prompts

This time I ran the first three of these into one strange piece of flash fiction, whereas the other two were standalone. The prompt phrases, all taken from Audre Lorde's work, are highlighted within the text.

1/2/3: Some words are open. This time he wasn't using any of them and I knew I was out of luck here and that I should take myself, my patter, and my suitcase of stuff elsewhere. He extended his arms in a herding motion, placating at the same time. 

"Look, any other year I'd have been totally up for buying some of these and trying them" he says, and that lie hangs in his mouth as he guides me towards the door, looking distractedly at his phone. "This year I have to consider every expense. Maybe try the other shops?"

Next door was the butcher's shop. It was low end, selling offal, mostly, the spare parts of animals. I inhaled as I stepped inside. "I'm here because I remember the smell of your neck in August, and I've not been past since. You got any?" The last time I passed, they'd been cooking some meat up outside for a summer barbecue but I'd been in a hurry. The butcher sniffed; a disgusting liquid snort. "Nope. All outta turkey."

4. The difference between poetry and rhetoric is that most people claim to know what poetry means and they say they don't encounter rhetoric, when in reality the reverse tends to be true.

5. 

Do not remember me as a thorn

My pressures on you were always well intentioned.

My sharpness considered.

My pain caused unwillingly.

Fifteen Minute Prompt after studying Who Said It Was Simple by Audre Lorde

Prompt: "There are so many"

There are so many 

Reasons

To keep on fighting,

To keep on breathing,

To keep on keeping on

As the musicians tell us.

We are assailed

Daily

By all that is bad,

All that is painful,

All that is worrying.

Will that war end?

Will the money last?

Will anyone care?

But we are needed

Always

By those close to us.

Those whom we protect,

Those we care about,

Those we love.

To abandon the fight

Stubbornly

Is to give up on them,

To give away our dreams,

To give in to

The things we can't control,

The things we don't understand,

The things we didn't want.

Find your

Reasons.
There are so many.