"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
JVL
if i look back, i am lost
Sade Olutola
🪼
Stranger Things
DEAR READER
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
Acquired Stardust
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@theartofmadeline
oozey mess
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he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
Not today Justin
blake kathryn
titsay
taylor price
Claire Keane
seen from Indonesia
seen from Norway
seen from TĂĽrkiye
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from TĂĽrkiye
seen from United States
seen from TĂĽrkiye
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Canada
seen from TĂĽrkiye
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from India
seen from United States
seen from TĂĽrkiye
seen from United States
seen from Hong Kong SAR China
@pendurancepals
Prompt: Sports ~Allison
She was a good sport
If not a little short with me but how was I supposed to know
Thought I was a good sport
Telling her I couldn’t even if I couldn’t tell her why
Not very sporting
Supposed to bare the soul bear the pain everything I can’t explain
Play the game, she says
No elaboration on the rules so how am I supposed to know
So I lose
Penalized for being too blind from her too dumb to myself
I always fucking lose
Recycled Prompts:
(From approximately a year ago) ~Allison
Grass Cuttings
You mow the lawn wrong
You need to go forward over a row
And then backwards over what you just mowed
Don’t you know?
Double the arbitrary work for the same payoff
Plus my approval
Her Husband
She can’t imagine being married to him
Can’t imagine being married in general but
To him?
No
Taking him home to meet the parents
For a basic dinner of not-pizza
Taking him to family Christmas
(But he’d be family)
Can’t imagine him telling stupid jokes to her cousin’s kids
Chasing after her cousins’ dogs
No
She can’t imagine marrying him
Standing up in front of the same cousins and cousin’s kids
Aunts, uncles, and all of his
To unabashedly declare emotion
Or can’t imagine sneaking off to a courthouse
Covertly signing papers
Stealing kisses
No
She can imagine
Can imagine sitting on the couch her back to his chest
While a movie plays on the screen
(But is that just a craving for closeness?)
Can imagine laying in bed with her legs crossing his
Talking
Just talking
Recycled Prompts: Just another day ~Allison
Just another day
With the pot on the verge of
Boiling over
but surface tension holds
I wish it wouldn’t
But I’m glad it does
It would pour out salted water
Dripping down
steaming off the burner
When I want straight evaporation
Fire
And smoke
Recycled Prompt: Just walk away ~Allison
You’re like
Adequate
But
For how long
Will that be enough?
Recycled Prompts: The test results ~Allison
Sitting
Waiting
Hoping for good news
Paused
Poised
Thinking you can’t lose
Listen
Loosen
Living life you choose
Poorly but
Surely
Something you can use
Recycled Prompt: Water flowed ~Allison
The tap is on, water pouring out.
And I should reach out to turn it off.
It’s a waste.
It doesn’t need to be running.
What was I even doing in the first place?
I should reach out to turn it off but I can’t bring myself to lift my hand.
I lift my gaze.
Focus my eyes.
She’s looking at me—who is that?
The tap is on, water pouring out.
Recycled Prompt: It evaded me ~Allison
dark figures
lurking in the periphery
foggy in the gloom but
on the outside of the glass
it can’t be wiped away
separated
in the air
with none to breathe
Recycled Prompt: Walk the dog ~Allison
Social call
At your door
With the wherewithal to stay outdoors
Step by step
Down the street
With a friend I haven’t seen in weeks
Missed your dog
Missed your face
But I’m glad it’s covered—keep away
Where to go?
Just not home
Don’t want to be back all alone
Recycled Prompt: Used tea bag ~Allison
Wanting memories to fade
Faster against the darkening page
Flipping folios and
Swiping tea bags over leaves to artificially age
Begging ink to disintegrate so you don’t have to think
Cheap paper, mass produced, doesn’t feel like this
Doesn’t last like this
I guess the bookbinder cared
I wish I didn’t
Recycled Prompts: No, you don’t ~Allison
Begging to be misunderstood
But they understand you anyway
Woe is you
But someone’s felt this way before
Will feel this way again
You’re still special
Unknowable
But they know you
Recycled Prompt: Dot, dot, dot ~Allison
Tapping patterns on the table
Feeling some regrets
Tense energy in fingertips
9 Though taking all the steps
8 Cross your eyes
7 Dot your Ts
6 When can this end I’m begging please
5 deep breaths in
4th stage of grief
Three minutes more
To go
One more time
(Once more unto the breach)
One
1
1
Exquisite Reflection | by Megan
half-past beginning
yet no end in sight
untethered and cradled
betwixt day and night
a dying star
and a rising sun
relinquish your truth
there is not mere one
find yourself at a station
with no trains to catch
watch them coast in and out
as your fears detach
when you stand on a stoop
hand raised to the door
release your clenched grasp
on the self from before
as your feet cross the threshold
take a moment to see
how infinite the exquisite reflection
before you can be
Recycled Prompt: Sculpted ~Allison
It’s interesting to see
How other people see me
Sculpted from the bits of me they know
I show
I count money weird
From my right hand to my left
slide & slap with my thumbs from the top of the pile
My pigtails are my legacy
my mask strings clinging to the rubberbands
“My favorite thing” he says
I make a quiet little scream just for me when I’m doing certain things with the potential
for no-stakes mistakes
& it’s noticed
& appreciated
“If there were a million of you I would take them all”
I exist in your mind?
What the fuck
Recycled Prompt: The Carpet ~Allison
Sock-clad feet pressing in
Impressed at the cushioned feel
Even through the fabric
A rug to be slept on
Too good to sweep under
Heavy beneath as you float up above
Like a cloud of candy floss
A cumulus
Six layers thick of support
How much did you spend on this pillow to walk on?
Wealth accumulated
Priceless if only you care
Recycled Prompt: Holy ~Allison
Jesus H fucking Christ why do I cuss like a Christian
I guess it’s just a way I’m stuck in
A stuck-in way that’s better to keep than, say, hating gays
Or treating women like racks of men’s ribs
Holy Mary mother of a god I don’t believe in
How do you watch faithful followers
Who can’t seem to fathom that the H in your son’s non-name doesn’t stand for Hate
It doesn’t stand for anything but that’s beside the point
Oh god...
Maybe it stands for hope? I think I’d like some of that
Recycled Prompt: Tweeted ~Allison
The phone chirped out silence, its screen flashing bright, to announce that he had tweeted.
Turning notifications on for his account had been a mistake, she knew, but it was one she regretted not at all (even as she regretted it every time he posted something). It was better to know than not to know. Better to be blindsided than anxiously checking every hour. Every minute. To see if he’d mentioned her.
He never tagged her, of course. He was always sly about it. But every other tweet was a reference, of course. To a time of their relationship. Or that fight about mail fraud three years ago. Or the one time they’d tried to have sex but started laughing too hard at the coincidence of people cheering about something unrelated outside.
He never said as much, never got as specific. But she could tell. He was still thinking about her.
Recycled Prompt: Clarity ~Allison
Crystalline hopes out of reach in a sky
illuminated by suns just as far
Twinkle like stars and luxuries she can’t afford
The passing of time
And a face she can’t see anymore