Our first date.
After years of waiting,
my love’s finally coming to me.
I’ve lit his path with candles.
Jack o’ Lantern welcomes him.
Deer skull incense guides
to the place where all departed meet;
where I’ve been awaiting him
since the day he came to be.
I’m pleased and honoured to share a Guest Post from my partner in crime, Don Ostertag. He is one of my favourite blog writers. His stories are straight from the heart and worth your time every single time.
An Introduction to my blog: Don Ostertag: Off Stage
I am in my lower 80s. My legs are in their late 90s. My beautiful Mexican senorita, now senora, Georgina, (Gina), and I have been married over half a century (59 years). We have five sons, four daughters-in-law, and eleven grandchildren. My wife raised five sons and one husband, and now is using her talent to help out with our grandchildren.
I am retired. I have had a great many occupations over the years; but for the last 45 years of working, I had been a union stagehand in the Twin Cities. While stagehands often work into their 80’s, (I knew one in Boston that was over 90), common sense and my aching body told me to get out. I had way, way, too much fun in my youth, getting bucked off horses, getting busted up in football, and getting bounced on the ground at the end of a parachute jump, and so on.
If I outlive my 401K, and my bad luck with Powerball continues, I’ll probably be greeting people as I gave them their shopping carts at the nearby big-box store. But for now, I’m retired.
I never got into trying to hit balls into holes in the grass. Although I lived in the woods and lakes when I was young, hunting and fishing don’t appeal to me anymore. I love fields and flowers, but my knees no longer approve of gardening. TV grows old after you watched the same episode of NCIS for the umpteenth time, and the MN Twins keep losing. I do read and read and read. I always have my Nook within reach.
And I write.
All my life I enjoyed daydreaming, watching people, and writing. More importantly, my body doesn’t mind my remembering and my writing. This blog is a small example of my writings.
I hope you enjoy reading them half as much as I enjoyed writing them. For the most part, they are true stories. Well, as true as I remember. After all, many of them happened a long, long time ago.
OLD HAND – published pieces
STAGE HAND – show biz pieces
NO HANDS – bits & pieces
PS: This Intro was written before the Darkness came to our world. And while prayer may be a great comfort, just remember God helps those who help themselves. So please obey the rules for good health. Be optimistic. And love thy neighbor even if it is at a six-foot distance.
And just keep thinking what the words of that annoying earworm sings, ‘The Sun will come out tomorrow’.
STAY SAFE
For a good laugh and food for thought, visit Don’s blog at https://donostertag.wordpress.com/
I am notorious for celebrating every milestone. And here I am bragging again.
My site has crossed the 3000 visitors milestone and nearly 6800 views. It has also earned 226 followers, all within 1.2 years. For someone who never created stories, it is a big deal. For the past year, every day, I create one story for my daughter, and every couple of days, one for my blog (her stories are simpler and don’t need a logic). It is a huge achievement for someone who was told that her writing is too simplistic.
It’s because I am a simple person. I don’t like to complicate language unnecessarily. That is my day-to-day business as an Instructional Designer, who creates training curriculum for business employees, and simplifies business language in the process so that employees can learn it easily.
It is who I am and something I’ve done since school times. My teachers would often complain that I talked too much in class–if my neighbour had a difficulty understanding what the teacher taught, I’d simplify it for them, interrupting the class in the process.
I remember when one of my schoolmate asked me for notes during exams. I handed her a single page–that was all I could wring out of the subject after an year at school. It made the day before exam easy. I’d just carry that page to school, give it thorough reading and dump it in the trash bin before entering the exam hall.
During my Bachelors in Arts (BA), I’d spend time after college simplifying Bachelor’s level English stories for my classmates.
During my Bachelor’s in Law (LL.B.), my exam sheet was always half empty. I had very little to say. I always got top marks though, which left my classmates intrigued. Alas, they asked for notes.
During Masters in Business (M.B.A.), I’d sit during lunch time to simplify lessons for my friends, giving them quick pointers to build their answers on. They loved my notes. A lot of them wondered why the books didn’t make the same sense…they did, just in a lot more words with business jargons.
So, here I am writing simple stories. Thank you all for reading them and reminding me that ‘simple is also a style’. You’ve made me a very happy person.
Author’s note: If you are wondering why I have so many degrees, that is a story for another day.
This is an invitation to all blog writers. If you love to write, or live to write, or write to live, or write for a living, please be my guest. If you’d like to publish a post on my site, please send it to me on my email ID: shailygrwl@gmail.com
Working alone can get lonely sometimes. Be my partner in crime.
Some facts about my site:
Fish in the Trees complete one year this June. It gets around 550 views per month and has 220+ followers as of now. I post around 3-4 short stories, poetry and random thoughts per week.
To publish your post on my blog, please note that the post should be:
Rules:
Modus Operandi:
Since I am a working mother, I may take around a week to respond. I will try to get back to you as soon as possible.
So, put on your writing cap. See you around, Partner.
Ever since I saw you,
you bug me lady.
Red lips, sharp eyes,
long hair left open to dry,
standing in the balcony
sipping a cup of tea,
a treat to every eye…
Damn! Why can’t I?
You bug me lady,
for I’d never wear red lips,
or Kohl my eyes…
You bug me lady,
So slander I about your character
to anyone who’d hear,
I just wish you’d care enough
to stop looking the way
I can never….
Photo by Alexander Andrews on Unsplash
#OppEmo
Maggie from fromcavewalls.wordpress.com has posed a challenge that involves a photo prompt story. We have to use the emotion this story invokes to build two stories with opposite emotions.
Here is my take.
Birth of Joy
For the first time in his life, he was bummed. Being an orphan, he had filtered all strong emotions out of his system, knowing they would only make him susceptible to pain and humiliation. He thought himself above all this.
But the moment, his wife’s cries turned into a baby’s wail, and he saw his daughter for the first time…
Death of Pain
I never asked you to hold my hand
in front of the world who wouldn’t understand.
But never even in my dreams
did you ever abandon me
till death makes us meet.
Been alone for long,
ever since the storm
blinded me,
and pitched me
against the rocks
too many times to count.
Waves who had
caressed me
left me behind to die
away from the sea.
My home now
a dream to me,
as I lay abandoned
by those who had
once cared
because now
I serve no purpose.
My heart’s cold,
I am now a ghost
they are unable to see.
Photo by Ammpryt ART
An answer to people getting free gifts from Amazon… https://wp.me/p2Dk9J-78l
Author’s note: This story was inspired by a post by Petra Jacobs about the Mysterious Magical Death-Weed Seeds on her site Inkbiotic, and the follow up discussions in her comments section.
The story is now part of a short-story collection available in black-white and coloured prints and as an ebook. I will share the links soon.
Short Stories | Fish-eye Perspective 