Oil and Water – VisDare

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Little Mo is well-known in these parts.

We’ve all seen her, even Lighterman Roberts with his tricorn hat and air of disdain. He won’t admit it, won’t confess to a sighting of the supernatural, but I’ve heard him as he walks down the streets, lighting the lamps at dusk-fall. He claims to be talking to his dog, a grizzled lurcher by the name of Mutt. In public, and especially when he’s in his cups, he treats that poor animal like dirt. There’s no way he’d bill and coo at Mutt as if he was wooing a lady. No, he’s seen Little Mo alright, and I fancy she tippy-toes alongside him in the cobbled streets every night.

She came to a dark end, did Little Mo. She was Captain de Riviera’s youngest daughter. He spoiled her so, and she got to thinking she could charm the birds off the trees. Instead, all she charmed was a feckless youth from our mean streets, teasing him with her fancy ways. It was enough to drive a poor young man wild.

That’s what Lighterman Roberts tells her, anyway.

I reckon he knows all about Little Mo. and I reckon she deserved it.

——

Here’s my latest entry to the lovely Angela’s VisDare.

I hope you enjoy this week’s tale – I’ve tied it in with my Five Sentence Fiction entry this week, where you just might get to hear Little Mo’s side of the story!

Please do visit VisDare for amazing poetry and prose!

 

Constant – Magpie Tales

Starry Night by alex ruiz

Starry Night by Alex Ruiz

 The man gazes up at the thin silver crescent suspended in the night sky. It is immovable, as if anchored by invisible threads that have been woven by the hands of the gods themselves.

He can see her, his love. She is waiting for him.

He is the Moonkeeper, yet without her, he would be lost. She has no idea that her home is also a moon that waxes and wanes at the whim of the universe.

It is better that she does not know. It is better that she remains unaware of her power and responsibility. Only he knows that her moon remains whole, remains illuminated as a constant. It is only the shadow that he casts from his moon that turns her light to shade, her shade to light.

He blows her a kiss, imagines it landing on her lips.

It will reach her. It always does.

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Here’s my latest entry to Magpie Tales. It follows on from the theme of the piece I wrote for Five Sentence Fiction the other week – I love a moon! What a beautiful, magical inspiration of an image, don’t you think?

I hope you enjoy this week’s entry- and please do visit Magpie Tales for amazing poetry and prose!

 

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Anchor – Magpie Tales

stainforth Shetland 2014 Yell Sound

Yell Sound, Shetland, 2014, by R.A.D. Stainforth

I am finding it hard to watch. My ship is pulling away, not from the shore, but from its sister ship pitching and yawing as it heads out of the mouth of the bay and into the open sea.

There is no protection out there, no place to hide from either the gale force winds, or the waves as high and hard as mountains. The battering will be relentless.

I turn away, feeling a rush of betrayal. My betrayal of him as I turn my back, and his betrayal of me as he has once again refused my pleas to stop, to stay on board with me in the safety of the harbour.

It is complex, our relationship. Built on shaky foundations – built on none at all, some would say, those who are sticklers for truth, those who are pedants. Ships do not have foundations. Only hollow hulls.

I whip round, face out to sea once more. I lift the binoculars, blinking as the ship fills my vision. A solitary figure is standing on the deck, binoculars trained on me.

I wave.

He waves in return.

I wait for his return. There is nothing else that I can do.

————-

Here is my latest entry into Magpie Tales – please do pop over there for more writerly goodness!