Seasons Greetings

To all the world who didn't receive my Holiday card

Extended Life Span Zombies - Trifextra

Credit: Zora Neale Hurston

“Tell them. They need to know, Zora. Tell them. This is what Extended Life Spans look like. Stop with the bean sprouts and garbanzo bean soufflé’s already. Eat some red meat, dammit. ”

Weekend Trifextra: 

We want thirty three words that are somehow related to Hurston's zombie sighting.  How you structure your response is entirely up to you.

This weekend's challenge is community-judged.

• For the 12 hours following the close of the challenge, voting will be enabled on links.  
• In order to vote, return to this post where stars will appear next to each link.  To vote, simply click the star that corresponds with your favorite post.
• You can vote for your top three favorite posts.
• Voting is open to everyone. Encourage your friends to vote for you, if you wish, but please don't tell them to vote on a number.  The numbering of the posts changes regularly, as authors have the ability to delete their own links at any time.
• You have 12 hours to vote.  It's not much time, so be diligent! We'll send out reminders on Twitter and Facebook.

Nothing Was Always Something

It was nothing. “Nothing there,” they said, “nothing at all.” Nothing was something. Always was.

She stood in the sinister mountain mist while silence hung on the trees. The coffee in her cup had chilled and the dampness draped her cotton nightdress so that it clung to her iced body. The dog whimpered at her feet and the cats climbed the screen door desperately seeking shelter.

How long had she stood on the rickety porch? How long since the last crunch of leaves echoed? It could be a deer, a bear, a tiny squirrel but they'd not been seen in these parts for years. Not even crows dwelled in this wasted land. Bad energy, she’d said when she moved there in the spring. Yet, she’d stayed hoping to bring life back, somehow. Now, the corn hung black and the tomatoes withered on the vine. The skeletal limbs of the trees creaked and groaned with hopelessness under the vicious winds.

Finally, it was her teeth chattering that stirred her. She slowly turned and opened the door. The animals rushed, knocking her back, and disappeared under beds and in closets. The fire was mere embers now suggesting she’d been peering into the gray for hour’s maybe. Wrapping the Indian blanket around her shivering shoulders, she poured the freezing coffee down the drain and refreshed it with the steaming. She crouched before the hearth and scratched at the embers until they caught the new log and spit flames. Then, she heard it again. The crunch, the scrape, the deep sighs beyond the garden. She sat back on her haunches and listened, waiting.

It was nothing, nothing at all. Only, she knew, nothing was always something.    

This week's Trifecta Challenge:

This week's word is:

SINISTER

1 archaic : unfavorable, unlucky
2 archaic : fraudulent
3: singularly evil or productive of evil

Please remember:

• Your response must be between 33 and 333 words.

• You must use the 3rd definition of the given word in your post.

• The word itself needs to be included in your response.

• You may not use a variation of the word; it needs to be exactly as stated above. 

• Only one entry per writer.

Wishing Stars - Trifecta

Wishing Stars

Hung tantalizingly from the wishing stars

Love, Happiness, Riches

Choose wisely, for all leave scars

One is rarely accompanied by the other

For certain rules apply

You are prohibited in trading for another  

The weekend challenge from Trifecta.  The Monkey's Paw, a short story by W.W. Jacobs, is about the strings that come with granted wishes.  We are asking you to write 33 words exactly about three wishes that come at a high price to the wisher.

Close The Book - Trifecta

This weeks Trifecta Challenge the third definition, which, in this case, is fairly specific.

BLACK

3: dressed in black

Close The Book

Satin and lace splinters the air

a toreador’s cape, a suicidal Paso Doble,

dancing with the unseen,

alone on the hilltop – fearless and free.

Dressed in black, she closed the book. 

Daily Accomplishment

What have I done with the passing day? 

I wrote one line to the Trifecta Challenge of 33 to 333 words for the prompt : BLACK

3: dressed in black

                              "Satin and lace cracks the air like the toreador’s cape in a synchronized                       Paso Doble, dancing with the unseen."

What the hell does that mean? And, where do I go from here?

I helped my daughter with her art/composition homework to choose a painting that seems silent and still, and then to question it until it speaks. We went through Dali's, Botticelli's, and DaVinci's and settled on American Gothic. How's that for some variety? 

I took Mello on an hour long "loose-leash" training walk around the neighborhood. He did well with still some more to go. 

I'm cooking spaghetti before my 7-year-old's championship football game.

After that, it's the Presidential Debate and the results of DWTS. 

Productive day? I just don't know anymore. 

Oh, and I wrote this blog post. 

Death - Trifecta

This week's Trifecta challenge:

This week's word is:

DEATH
3 capitalized : the destroyer of life represented usually as a skeleton with a scythe

Death, you do not scare me

No, nor your Grim Reaper projection

I see you for who you truly are:

A welcoming warmth of purity

The reflection of life’s infinity

To become one with the universe

Merging with peace and joy of eternity

No, Death you do not scare me

I will embrace your sweet kiss whenever

Until then, my lips caress Life