Every morning for a few months, right after I awoke, I would grab the tablet next to my bed and tap out a twelve-word story. My mind was still fuzzy from the other side. I didn’t care much what came out of me. That’s why the stories were sometimes good, sometimes weird, sometimes boring, and quite often rubbish. I never knew where my mind would wander, which was the delicious part of the whole exercise. The challenge was getting something down quickly in twelve words, something that halfway made sense (to me, at least.) I’m sharing some of the animal themed scribblings here, just so I can let them loose. Some have titles, many aren’t stories at all, and some don’t meet the twelve-word standard.
Kitty Urgency
Fur rumbles.
Paws poke.
Heavy Black creeps.
Slitty eyes stare.
Food.
Now.
Gilly nibbled the dangling worm.
Flew high into space.
His last swim.
Bee Brush Off
Bumbling bees bound for business; bother me and you’ll bungle your bounty.
Tiny Tragedy
Worm shrugs, stretches, pokes past earth skin, greeting rain. Sunshine shrivels dreams.
Octopus Wisdom
Mystery eyes break through skin shield. Exploring. Searching. Reaching. Connecting with itself.
Wrinkled rocks crunch and crinkle. Otis gathers jewels for his animal bed.
Widow Lois found her perfect ephemeral fling: dark, zesty, eight legged, crunchy.
Insistent black monster pokes and purrs his mama to his food dish.
Raven glides on currents high
Stroking invisible breath
Pushing air to me
Terry Nichols 