We have handed over our passport
Battered down the hatches
In a siege of our own designing
Some feeling smug justification
Others wondering if they should have done more
All responsible
All of us
Remember this
Huddled behind our walls
When the hunger strikes
Today’s prompt is.
Right to health
Is access to medical care something that governments should provide, or is it better left to the private sector? Are there drawbacks to your choice?
In response to Scott’s Daily Prompt, Choose your adventure
He paused, hand on the door handle. Did he really want to find out what lay beyond?
It was the fate of humanity. Opening the door would find it out. Everything had been prepared as best as his team could. Many sleepless nights, many meetings, many arguments.
Many friendships lost.
Much blood shed.
Would it all be worth it?
Now it came down to it he felt like delaying the moment of truth. Whatever lay ahead would not be real until he made it so by opening that door.
How long could he delay it?
He knew the answer to that. He could not delay it any further. The decision was not his any longer. The fate of humanity was not his any longer, just as it was no longer any man, woman or child’s.
The decision belonged to those beyond the door.
With a deep breath, he turned the handle to find out what they would decree.
So, as the prompt suggests, what’s next? Feel free to continue the story below.
Fortune favours the bold
Risk equals success
People stop seeing risk
And hand over their cash
Their time
Their labour
Their lives
The minority shine
The majority are mesmerised
While they fall
Today’s prompt is.
Choose your adventure
Write a story or post with an open ending, and let your readers invent the conclusion
In response to Scott’s Daily Prompt, Call me maybe
A phone
Is a clock
A calculator
A camera
A notebook
A console
A radio
A TV
A movie screen
A book
An encyclopedia
A chain
A cage
Territory shrinks
As the walls rise again
And the drawbridge is raised
The world is smaller
The worst of times
From long ago
Are opium
Entertainment
Sleight of mind
Meanwhile
Terry the Tory
Sniggers behind
Fake pride
And cheap beer
Protest
Is the latest sport
Avarice
The virtue of power
Today’s prompt is.
Call me, maybe
Describe your relationship with your phone. Is it your lifeline, a buzzing nuisance, or something in between?
In response to Scott’s Daily Prompt, Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
Green and quiet With a gentle breeze Sunlight warming A cool drink Solitude Then I am ready
The Elixir
Swept through the void
Hunting
Stars glinting off the
Silver skin
The peak of human invention
Empty and silent
Today’s prompt is.
Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
You need to make a major change in your life. Do you make it all at once, cold turkey style, or incrementally?
In response to Scott’s Daily Prompt, Writing room
Green and quiet
With a gentle breeze
Sunlight warming
A cool drink
Solitude
Then I am ready
I’m fresh out of spring
Beyond the long summer days
Winter is coming
Today’s prompt is.
Writing room
A genie has granted your wish to build your perfect space for reading and writing. What’s it like?
In response to Scott’s Daily Prompt, Think global, act local!
We must treasure those Who are close and are willing To help those afar
Blue eyes turned purple
Deep purple and very still
Watching all my life
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Today’s prompt is.
Think global, act local!
“Think global, act local.” Write a post connecting a global issue to a personal one.
In response to Scott’s Daily Prompt, Flangiprop!
Flangiprop: Iscis tulartart Iscis tulartart Savvy savvy sah Holah iniquit Everar tala Notah
From the purple eye of death
The last exhaled breath
Comes an aweful doom
And darkness starts to loom
It dims the roads once bright
Quenches golden light
Sends tremors through the land
Like my trembling hand
Trembling on the key
That sets the danger free
Releasing purging fire
Born from grief and ire
Fear will bring the dark
And there is no lighted ark
So hide your fears away
Until the final day
Today’s prompt is.
Flangiprop!
Invent a definition for the word “flangiprop,” then use the word in a post.
Deep bright purple star.
Piercing from the depths of roiling blue gas clouds
And a million billion stars
Outshining Venus and Mars
Swathes like silver paths
Some gathered in spiral wheels
And between them in the sparse dark spaces
Ships blink and travel on by.
A memory from the deepest well of childhood.
A memory that could not have been.
Today’s prompt is.
Burnt
Remember yesterday, when your home was on fire and you got to save five items? That means you left a lot of stuff behind. What are the things you wish you could have taken, but had to leave behind?
In response to Scott’s Daily Prompt, Burning down the house
The mountain rained fire
Castle trembled, emptied of life
In time, forgotten
Meaningless
Less meaning
All our words
Our angry words
Falling on deaf ears
Met with serious frowns
Hiding sneering laughter
Less
Less
Nothing
Only the attempt
Gives us life
Today’s prompt is.
Burning down the house
Your home is on fire. Grab five items (assume all people and animals are safe). What did you grab?
In response to Scott’s Daily Prompt, Through the window
Blue and yellow flashes
Many shades of tan and brown
Black deep with sheens of rainbows
And a brazen red singer
Finally, the black and yellow friend.
The visitors to the table today
Ordinary
Normal
Steadfast
Boring
Nah!
That doesn’t make any money
Excite them
Stimulate them
Make them play
Make them pay
Milk them
Like the cattle they are
I yearn
For ordinary
Today’s prompt is.
Through the window
Go to the nearest window. Look out for a full minute. Write about what you saw.
In response to Scott’s Daily Prompt, Ode to a playground
There are live in graves
Where I used to play
Cramped houses
Looking all proud and clean
Destined to become slums
All dumped on
The orchards of my childhood
The woods where I played
Dreams flying away
In an excess of real life
The stars just don’t care
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Today’s prompt is.
Ode to a playground
A place from your past or childhood, one that you’re fond of, is destroyed. Write it a memorial.
In response to Scott’s Daily Prompt, Sliced Bread
Ten thousand songs
In the palm of my hand
I dreamed of always having music
In my ears
I was in love
And I wanted the object of my love
Near me always
Now I have
The iPod, The smartphone
For the music alone
Is the best thing
Since sliced bread
Today’s tragedy
Is the damn acceptance of
Bloody league tables!
Today’s prompt is.
Sliced bread
Most of us have heard the saying, “That’s the best thing since sliced bread!” What do you think is actually the best thing since sliced bread?
In response to Scott’s Daily Prompt, Musical
Music gives us
Emotion without consequence
Exploration without responsibility
Imagination without boundaries
It is the perfect space
To reflect our
Perfect selves
Today’s prompt is.
Musical
What role does music play in your life?
In response to Scott’s Daily Prompt, Dearly Departed
Here I lie A dreamer Who fell in love with the ephemeral And never Made those dreams Concrete
Is knowing when to fight
And when to absorb the blow
Today was absorption
Tomorrow…
Today’s prompt is.
Dearly departed
Write your own eulogy.
In response to Scott’s Daily Prompt, Ready, set go!
Go!
They say, write
Don’t think
Just write
But for me
That defeats the purpose
I write because I can’t talk
At least I can’t talk eloquently
I cannot frame my argument
Or my thoughts
In the best way
Only when I have walked away
I write
So I can think
So I can find the best words
To say what I
Immersed in purple
Drifting in a swirling cloud
Sparkles in the distance
In the deeper swirls
And somewhere
Deeper
Beats the pulse
Of the roaring
Burning heart
Today’s prompt is.
Ready, set, go
Set a timer for ten minutes. Open a new post. Start the timer, and start writing. When the timer goes off, publish.
In response to Scott’s Daily Prompt, Shipwrecked
I am shipwrecked
I sailed a sea of honesty and regret
I did not see the storm coming
So here I am
On an island
No resource or escape
And the horizon
Is endless
There once was a time
When the crackle of vinyl
Was the path to love
Today’s prompt is.
Shipwrecked
Read the story of Richard Parker and Tom Dudley. Is what Dudley did defensible? What would you have done?
A shout from the earth
Twisting rivers of fire
Cascade to the sea
Today’s prompt is.
I got skills
If you could choose to be a master (or mistress) of any skill in the world, which skill would you pick?
In response to Scott’s Daily Prompt, Sweet 16
When I was just sixteen
I wanted to change the world
Bring peace, fix all the problems
By twenty one I knew that was not to be
Instead, I would leave a legacy
Something by which the future would remember me
By thirty, the world was down and dirty
I was fighting for my place
By forty I was planning for those to come
By fifty I was fearing the legacy we were leaving
Now
I only crave peace
Dusk murmurations
Like a ballet in the sky
Whirling evening swirls
Ordered by some hidden sign
Steeling for the long flight home
Scott Andrew Bailey - Author 