The Bag Lady

Fandango’s Flashback Friday — October 30

Pumpkins colored all in a row

Soon will be covered in snow

Rotting or frozen on an old step

They’re done for the year, out of pep.

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS October 31, 2026

She thought the costume was user friendly
Convivial opening top to ending
Halloween, a cause to party
Wanted to show off as artsy
Celebrating started at ten
All ghouls could rise up then
Hiding behind the old gravestones
Played creepy music on her phone
Old man Smythe traveled by
Saw her, and said “oh Gertie, thought you’d died!”

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Weekend Writing Prompt #492 – Convivial

Here is this week’s image to get your creative juices flowing!

Please create one senryu and one haiku to accompany this image prompt. Remember that traditional American haikus and senryus are three lines presented in a 5-7-5 syllabic pattern. The haiku describes nature or a season, and the senryu focuses on human nature and emotions.

This image depicts a mountain range, with a man hiking on one of the grey and black ridges in the foreground. The colors beyond it in the middle are a kaleidoscope of shades of red and orange, with white clouds and blue sky at the top.

Then, provide a link in the comments below or ping back to this post on your blog.

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beauty in pastels

layered perfection above

picture a sunset clouding

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traveling softly

sunset hues layered display

nature paints beauty

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SenHai Saturday #42

Of course we all know the blowhard and he blew by today.

It seems he’s blowing around every corner, day and night as he hits the campaign trails. Every state gets blown red as he demands their votes.  It’s not just that he’s windy but he storms relentlessly on social media.  And when he blowsifys into your state you know there’s bad weather ahead. Raining ridiculous remarks, in a regular roundup of red hats.

Mark Twain blew into my head as he commented that true loyalty belongs to the country rather than political parties or governments. 

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Meet the bar by verbing your verse

“Harry said, I see a funny carriage full of men in prisoner costumes.”
It was the annual Halloween parade and the carriage had a blue ribbon on its side. Then came the clowns with the cherry red noses.
“And big shoes”, Joe added, “I love seeing them walking the parade marathon in those suckers! Oh, of course, look! It’s a freakin’ drone!”pointing to a supposed bat hovering over the crowd.”

https://wordpress.com/reader/feeds/142397178/posts/6229417631

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“You’re only given a spark of madness. You musn’t lose it.”
― Robin Williams

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One-Liner Wednesday – Famous last … thoughts?

II. Dennis’ prompt: Giving the Abstract a Voice

For this prompt, write a poem that gives an abstract idea a personality, a voice, and a life of its own.

Choose something we cannot physically touch: Destiny, Time, Hope, Justice, Fear, Memory, Regret, Silence, Truth or any other abstract concept that interests you.

Imagine your chosen concept as a character. What might it say? How might it behave? What does it do when nobody is watching? Does it enjoy its work? Does it have ambitions, habits, complaints, prejudices or regrets? Does it understand how its actions affect people?

You are especially encouraged to draw on your own culture, language, mythology, folklore or personal experience to give your character a distinctive identity and voice.

Your personification can be comic, tragic, sinister, tender, absurd, philosophical or anything in between. Perhaps Time is tired of being blamed for everything. Maybe Hope is stubborn. Perhaps Memory keeps things it was asked to throw away.

You might write a dramatic monologue in which the concept speaks directly to us, a conversation between two competing abstractions, a sonnet, an allegory, a satire or something completely different. These are only possibilities, not restrictions.

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OUT THERE

There you sit, staring at the news channel, not taking anything in, sort of in a trance because it’s too much to take in, it can’t be real. The phone rings, “oh hello Fran. No I’m not busy, tomorrow? Taking the bus you say, a protest? I couldn’t possibly go. I’m not twenty anymore, Fran, and neither are you! I don’t think it’s safe out there. What? Of course I vote, but I’m not going out there, I’m voting by mail. You’ll drive me? No, I’m not going out there. I’m not protesting either. It’s too dangerous out there. Of course I agree. Of course I’m upset about it. Don’t talk to me like that Fran, I vote and I see the news. I know what’s going on. I said no, goodbye.” Turns the volume back up.

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W3 Prompt #235: Wea’ve Written Weekly

The day is almost done. Only a mile swim and I’ll be home free. This new movie will shove me right into the spotlight and maybe even movie star status! That would mean no more microwave noodles every night and some real food. Practicing with the heavy helmet and sword should make the audition easy. Swimming has built up my arm strength and runs on the sand builds my endurance. I’m doing everything I can to be perfect for the role of Lancelot in the new King Arthur film.

The cell phone rings. “Yes, sir, tomorrow at six. I’m ready!”

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30 Octber 2026

Classic and the first word that comes to mind are books. Books we read as children such as my favorite golden book, “Cinderella” ☺️that gave me a goal for my entire life till six years old and then all of the dog stories such as sad ones like “Call of the Wild” and meeting Jack London, to “Black Beauty”. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell was my favorite for years. Then in high school I met John Steinbeck who was easy to read and learned about lives of people I had no idea. Just writing about these which are a drop in the bucket, because reading was my favorite thing to do, brings many memories. I must say when I read a classic, I forage for every book the author has written and read them too.

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Writing Prompts