5.11.12 The Call of the Sea

I leaned over the pier, pretending a spyglass was in my hand.

And the ships, I imagined they were mine.

Then Mum was there, reaching out, draging me away.“Beware the call of the sea.  The sweet rocking of waves will murder you, my son!”

The rifles, the canons, the screams.   

Our mast has fallen.  Our flag has burned.  Blood runs down my face, my chest, my hands.

The waves reach up to claim me.  Colored red, smeared with bodies.

Death beckons beneath the waves. 

Mother’s warning echoes.

There’s no sweetness here.  The sea is bloodthirsty.  The sea is murder.

5.13.11 tremulous - a drabble of 100 words

Primitive Man invented the wheel, discovered fire, and got us started. The Egyptians, with their irrigation canals, and the Romans, with their running water and indoor plumbing, continued it. There was a slight hiccup in the aptly named Dark Ages. But then the printing press came about and the rest, as they say, is history. Brilliant people applied themselves to innovation and invention. Now, the limit of the imagination is the only thing restraining our discoveries.

So we sit in front of our screens for hours, losing touch with who we really are. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our future.