Category: Short Fiction & Poetry

Toilets in Japan are dangerous, please be aware

If you’re not careful, three spirits you’ll meet

Don’t summon the Yōkai, not even on a dare

Toilets in Japan are dangerous, please be aware

If the door swings open, it’s too late to retreat

Toilets in Japan are dangerous, please be aware

If you’re not careful, three spirits you’ll meet

 

Pale young girl in an old red dress

Hanako-san, Hanako-san, are you there?

Third stall to the left is where she’ll coalesce

Pale young girl in an old red dress

Drag you to hell or dismember you there

Pale young girl in an old red dress

Hanako-san, Hanako-san, are you there?

 

Have you seen my legs? Teke-Teke asks from the floor

The woman stands on her hands with no lower half

She waits as she watches from under the door

Have you seen my legs? Teke-Teke asks from the floor

Answer wrong and she’ll cut you in half

Have you seen my legs? Teke-Teke asks from the floor

The woman stands on her hands with no lower half

 

Red paper or blue is the option that he’ll state

Ako Manto, masked and adorned in a long red cape

Choose blue and you’ll be strangled ‘til you suffocate

Red paper or blue is the option that he’ll state

Red and your back is flayed ‘til it hangs like a drape

Red paper or blue is the option that he’ll state

Ako Manto, masked and adorned in a long red cape

 

Bathrooms in Japan are dangerous, you have been warned

The lesson is simple, do your business at home

Killed by a ghost, a ghost you’ll be reborn

Bathrooms in Japan are dangerous, you have been warned

Don’t become an angry soul left to wander and roam

Bathrooms in Japan are dangerous, you have been warned

The lesson is simple, do your business at home

Image by Miguel Á. Padriñán from Pixabay

Waters of the Gods snug in my fist

Heat burns the back of the throat

Inside, the soul warms at its touch

Smelling of leather and smoke

Kiss of the glass to the lips

Empty bottle falls to the side

Yearning for clarity

Image by Elzer2016 from Pixabay

Powder sprays and trees rush by

Knees bent to bear the brunt

Rattle, shackle and twist hard to the side

Yard sale!

I miss Irish coffee mornings

Image by Hans Braxmeier from Pixabay

Tiny instrument

Bright and cheery are the tones

Four strings, small wood frame

Laughter and smiles abound while

Songs of melancholy ring

Image by FrankensteinsMobster from Pixabay

 

There once was a cat from Colorado

Who was quite the tiny desperado

She’d sit in your lap

Slap you for pats

With an overblown sense of bravado

 

 

Image by MihaiGuzun from Pixabay

O’ blade of steel and simple grip of wood

extension of my being and joy of my heart.

Block, parry and thrust and parry again

as the air is cut.

Loud! Echoes the rasp of edge against edge

Contact broken with a simple twitch of the wrist.

Glint of metal as the blade snaps down

saved by guard of filigree.

Lightning Fast!  Your sharpened point whips out

Parried out but circling in tight.

Riposte explosion of speed and beauty

My opponent laid out.

Image by darf_nicht_mehr_hochladen from Pixabay

Little girl ghost with the raggedy bear

Where do you wish to go?

They say there are two directions

One up and one below.

~*~

I couldn’t leave ole raggedy bear

Where would he get to stay?

I love him so much and he needs me here

How could I go away?

~*~

Run little girl and leave me behind

Raggedy bear spoke in a voice that was gruff

This man is wicked and a danger to you

I won’t stop loving and your love for me is enough

~*~

I am no danger to you, little girl

I only offer a choice

You can come and stay with me

It only needs be said with your voice

~*~

Run little girl ghost

Run while you can

I will stay and fight for your soul

From this very dangerous man

~*~

I will stay with you dangerous man

If you let my little girl go free

I couldn’t follow her anyway

I can learn to love even you, I guarantee

~*~

I am a lonely man, raggedy bear

I would be pleased if you stayed

Trapped between realms is a lonely place

Sometimes I grow afraid

~*~

Raggedy bear leapt and wrapped the man in an embrace

Little girl ghost disappeared in a puff

A smile lit upon her lips as she faded away

Knowing that ole raggedy bear had love enough

 

Image by andrea candraja from Pixabay

Searching, I find that which I seek

A toadstool circle at the base of an oak

Slowly, I dance to build my mystique

Catching the eye of a woodland folk

Adorned in leaves and pine cones to boot

Upon her head sits a leafy crown

Her smile is bright, her mischief takes root

She grabs my hand and swings me ‘round

Her scent is heady

And I may swoon

My feet grow unsteady

I lose track of the tune

I have grown old but once I was free

For the fairies danced with silly old me

Image by Prawny from Pixabay

C  old mornings and an empty mind

O  h, how I crave some

F  roth or black

F  or me, either is fine

E  levate my mood, elevate my mind

E  verything is perfect

 

O  ptions exist

R  ethink the beginning of the day

 

T  iny leaves rolled in balls or laid out flat

E  ssence of life in a little cup

A  s green as a spring day

Image by David Mark from Pixabay

Ship sails burst in flames like water on grease

Sweating, I grab the tiller and jaunt astray

My hands, they ache from the cold and the breeze

The ship turns slowly, far and away

 

Each joint and bone frozen to the brass

The great guns boom and cannon balls sail

Frost bites into the knuckles but I hold fast

The mast bucks hard and splinters against the rail

 

Crash, the main sail comes down hard

Almost thrown, I lash myself to the wheel

Our merry ship once a beaut’ now forever marred

Below the seas, I feel the snap of our keel

 

The battle lost and long forgot

My dead eyes stare at the unbroken waters

All our efforts were all for naught

Now a ship, only ghosts left from the slaughter