ABORTED CALL

Peter Woodgate

It’s like this officer

I’ve found my wife in bed

With all this red stuff over her

I think she may be dead.

I don’t think she is breathing

Sometimes it’s hard to tell

She doesn’t often get aroused

And just makes my life Hell.

She says she might well have sex

With a robot or a dummy

And when I tell the blokes at work

They think it’s bloody funny.

But it’s not, I’m telling you

Cos she just sends me packing

I’m pretty good at foreplay

It’s after that I’m lacking.

What’s that you say , feel for her pulse,

Ok I’ll see if I can

This red stuff It’s all sticky

Hang on I think it’s jam.

Good God her eyes have opened

Sorry what did you say?

No officer ignore this call

I forgot it’s my BIRTHDAY.

Copyright Peter Woodgate

Emotions ~ homework (Flash fiction 600 words)

 Emotions  ~ homework (Flash fiction 600 words)

By Len Morgan 

I saw Michelle in Tesco’s today.  I thought I’d put all of that behind me.  I thought I was free of her; I’d cried until I was all drained out; I felt empty, yet every time I thought of her, tears leaked from my eyes again, and my brain became overwhelmed by the hurt and anger. After ten months, I thought she couldn’t possibly hurt me any more. But, the pain still returns every time I think of her, thoughts and memories are things I now have to guard against. 

   Then in Tesco’s she looked directly at me, her expression was blank, there was no recognition in her eyes.  We’d been a couple for two years, then she met her Ex, Bruce, and it was as if we’d never met, never shared our private secrets, never shared intimate moments of love.  

   She didn’t tell me she was breaking up with me, she just stopped answering my calls, never explained that I was just an infatuation, just cut me off!  Pictures of us together were deleted from her ‘Face Book Page’ replaced by pictures of her, Bruce, and their child. That was before she blocked me completely from her face book.  I watched her as she left the store; Bruce was outside with the baby in a buggy. 

   After nine months, in limbo I thought I was over her.  I even believed I could start dating someone else, but now I’m crying myself to sleep again.  It didn’t help when I met her friend Valerie who mentioned that she’d met Michelle in the high street.  She said Michelle had a baby in a buggy, she looked pale and had a bruise on her cheek. Then Valerie delivered the killer blow, she said the baby was the spitting image of me…

 

Copyright Len Morgan

PLEASE, SHOW ME YOUR GLORY

 PLEASE, SHOW ME YOUR GLORY    

By Jeffrey Porter 

I saw Moses, beckoning to me,

Asking if I would like to stand beside him

On the rock where he stood.   

Abandoning my fear of height, I began climbing.

I never saw rock climbing as a sport,

Moses kept shouting to me climbing techniques.

 

Indefatigably, my strength, endurance, agility, and Balance were severely tested;

Climbing over gigantic shelves of rocks,

Like a small penguin on a cliff

I have become a rockhopper.

 

I am perched on one of the sharpest of these rocks;

Exasperatingly, I am panting and grunting

With exhaustion.

 

It was a supernatural feat.

Exhilaratingly, I finally reached the summit -

Outstripping the range of mortal sight

Standing beside Moses.

I always wanted to stand on the rock where Moses Stood.

The scenery was picturesque; breathtaking, it was a Stunning panoramic view.  

I saw a magical array of thousands and tens of thousands

Of tiny, twinkling lights

I spoke with Moses for a moment

I saw the Phoenix rising from the ashes

I saw fields and fields of scarlet roses

And romancing eagles. 

Moses had a longing for the promised land

Where he belonged.

Copyright Geoffrey Porter

 

Note:

In Greek mythology the phoenix is an indomitable bird that was said to burn itself to death in a fire every five or six centuries and be born again rising from the ashes.  

 

 

The best laid plans

 The best laid plans

By Christopher Mathews

 

The best laid plans of mice and men often fail and fail again.

They come to naught or grief or pain - but the world goes round and round the same

 

Such is all their worth

 

The fieldmouse builds her home in vain, just before the ploughman came

to strip the soil, her straw built shed and leave her tiny offspring dead.

 

Beneath the naked earth

 

‘House for sale, with mountain scenes, on the shores of Tyrrhenian Seas.

Herculaneum, a seaside town’ - built on hubris - that deadly ground.

 

A city built on mirth

 

Fool! the man who builds on sand and takes not heed for how he plans

Come soon or late, our end will come and what is left of all we’ve done?

 

Unless you have new birth

 

-o0o-

The above was inspired by the Robert Burns poem, To a Mouse.)

 

Copyright Christopher Mathews, June 2026

THE EVICTION

THE EVICTION 

By Peter Woodgate

 

Whilst dozing by the telly and well into a dream

Tranquility was shattered by a piercing scream

It seems Jo’s mum telephoned to say she’d seen a mouse

She wasn’t going to sleep a wink what’s more she’d sell the house.

When Jo regained composure she said don’t worry mum

Pete will come right over armed with torch and gun.

So, off I go to Tallow Gate to exorcise the beast

Being told it was quite big, two foot six at least.

When I get there Mum’s in the chair her skirt up to the light

“Can you see it?” She remarks, not a pretty sight.

“It went into the hall,” she says, as big as a bloody cat.

“Where did it come from? Where’s it gone? Do you think it is a rat?

And so with torch in hand I search each darkened place

And then inside the bathroom I see a tiny face

It’s poking out beside the bin, I have him now, I think

But out the little bleeder shoots, he’s quicker than a blink.

Down the hall and round the bend and into mums bedroom

I’ll never get him now, I’m sure, that’s what I assume

But just in time, help arrives, and Tony’s there on cue

“Well, what’s the score, how big is it and what is there to do?”

I saw that Tony came prepared and ready for the crunch

But with gloves and tea-towel I thought it more like lunch.

The tea-towel proved a master stroke and we cornered him at last

Pity that we wrecked the room and smashed a pane of glass.

We wrapped him in that tea-towel that scared and lonely mouse

And Tony set him free outside evicted from Big Momma’s house.

So in future if you see a rat or tiny mouse

Just call out catchers Pete and Tone no need then to grouse.

 

Copyright Peter Woodgate

  

Little Miss Jone’s Eviction (100 Word Flash)

 Little Miss Jone’s Eviction 

By Sis Unsworth

Little Miss Jones was feeling extremely anxious. It seemed

her life was changing as she was about to be evicted

after living there a short time. She loved her own space

and had everything she needed. Without warning they wanted her out. 

What had she done? She hadn’t bothered anyone

and now they were physically evicting her. Where could she find

another place like this? She began to get extremely angry

and gave out a large screaming sob, in desperation

then found herself pushed into a strange environment…

Where a voice said, “Mrs Jones it’s a beautiful baby girl!”

 

Copyright Sis Unsworth

Sandcastles 02

 Sandcastles 02

By John Abbott

Pretty little things created on the beach

Almost out of reach

Decorated with shells

The stories that relate to those moments, it dwells

And a moat surrounding

with all the noises sounding

Of the gentle flow of waves

Is often all that one craves

 

Like life, it is constant, never-ending

Always in the winds, bending

Build, create, decorate, the children imagining stories

And delighting in great glories

You grow from there to imagine dreams and futures

For you to think about experiences

However, it often deals with disappearances

The waves on the sand causing ripples

Maybe you need to realise

That this often ends, destined to capsize

As the tide gets heavier

Maybe its just a little merrier

It is after all, an epiphany

You go along with the ride

And as we all know, it all washes away with the tide

 

Copyright John Abbott