Cal Winters

I need an #escape from things
a path I can follow that hasn't been trodden
the road less traveled by
but without the irony
so I can find myself deep in the woods
forest bathing until my soul is clean
and I can return
scrubbed and shiny
foreign to everyone I left
a new creature to discover

#whistpr

I wake most days
unclear as to whether my intentions
are to accept the day
and embrace what comes
or push through it like mud
#grumpy and disheveled
lashing at anything in my way
intent on driving it off
instead of asking it for a pull

#vss365 #prompt

Walk the talk or balk the walk

#7syllablesentence #prompt (talk)

If time allowed slips
I would come back just to hear
you talk one more time

#haikufeels #prompt (talk)

Look at my actions
for more than a minute
you'll see the #pattern emerge
of self-sabotage following every moment of good
with self-blame barking at its heels

#whistpr

My guardian #angel quit
said there was no point
said he could only watch me run
headlong into a wall
so many times
before it became disheartening
so now I'm unguarded
free
and running at full speed

#vss365 #prompt

Take your pills and all comes clear.

#7syllablesentence #prompt (pill)

Clever, subtle Reynard
father of #mischief
crawling around in my skull
scraping out instructions
shredding
the coffee filters
my clothing
the bedsheets
until
in tatters
I venture out into the world
a mockery of a man
uncloaked by his own fox
naked for the world to see

#vss365 #prompt

Thank you!

Oh! Thank you so much!

I like the #vss365 prompt, but I'm a creature of habit, and I oftentimes cannot figure out what the prompt for the day is unless it is explicitly stated. The nature of it changing hosts every so often gives variety, but for a person like me, I need a clear place to look for the day's challenge.

I admit there is a part of me
that wishes I could take to my memories
cut through them with a #scythe
then separate the wheat from the chaff
so I wake every morning with a smile
a good feeling to permeate the day
but then I will have learned nothing
and my smile will be that of an idiot

#whistpr

A font of hatred spoils all

#7syllablesentence #prompt (font)

Draw your memories
water from a poison well
drink with reluctance

#haikufeels #prompt (draw)

The sun beating down
hot kisses on my #neck
driving me to the earth
my footfalls heavy
my skin slick with sweat
all embrace
given to the shade
of a welcoming tree
a moment of freedom
from the fiery glare
of my sometimes lover

#whistpr

A mind squall portends downpours

#7syllablesentence #prompt (squall)

A peppermint stick
in my coffee this morning
gives my brain fake frost

#haikufeels #prompt (stick)

I saw a #beetle crawling across my wall and thought
what a wonderous landscape it has found itself in
gone are twigs and stones
replaced with plaster and carpet
and though this new environment is as cluttered
as the leaf pile it regularly calls home
it does not smell half as lovely

#whistpr

All is moot when love is lost

#7syllablesentence #prompt (moot)

Walls of woe close in
naught left but to make something
creation is life

#haikufeels #prompt (make)

Deep in the vast darkness
a thought begins to #glow
its light sending scurrying
the creatures of noise
its path becoming more defined by the second
its power growing until it is blinding
the creatures flee, screaming
the thought becomes solid
takes its place
and the creatures slowly return

#whistpr

I thread my hair with bird seed
gathering a chattering of #sparrows
to wear like a crown
never again alone

#vss365 #prompt

Feign interest till you make it.

#7syllablesentence #prompt (feign)

Keep all you can find
this yard sale of memories
what's left will be trash

#haikufeels #prompt (keep)

Thank you so much!

Had I a #tail
I would wag it when you entered the room
my senses overwhelmed with the very idea of you
until all that could flee from my whirlpool of emotion
was that single muscle memory act of devotion
thumping out the cadence

you
are
my
life

#whistpr

Knock back a few
sweaty thighs sticking to sticky seats
mosquitoes feasting on your ancestry
the music launches itself at relevance
misses by a mile but everyone claps
orange scent mixed with stale beer
reminds of nights before you came
it will be fun, they said
we'll be #together

#vss365 #prompt

Burn the sage, not the country

#7syllablesentence #prompt (sage)

Born in an order
raised with thoughtless deference
to expectations

#haikufeels #prompt (order)

I want to go to there