Posts Published by Cheney

in 1000 Stories

a willing ear – 8/1000

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Everyone is thrilled she is coming, and they clamber to get tickets to her show before they sell out.

The excitement builds but people start falling. First the banker’s wife, found dead with her ears cut off.

“Her EARS?”

“Oh, yes.”

On opening night, the theatre has many empty seats, yet she sings so beautifully, no one notices she can’t pack a house.

By the last night of her show the theatre is only half full, yet she shines anyway.

It helps to know that even when she can’t pack a theatre, she always has a willing ear to listen.… Read the rest

in Poems

manifesting

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I see myself sitting poolside, my pool boy in his tiny shorts skimming the cool blue water, and I ring a bell for someone to come bring me another iced tea. It’s so Gatsby. Though I am nowhere near the glitz, and nobody knows my name, don’t underestimate me. I’ll publish five books a year and be a millionaire before I’m done with this life.

Today’s poetry prompt words were: poolside, underestimate, and five.

Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash

in 1000 Stories

that guy – 7/1000

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I hardly recognize him.

This isn’t the pimply, pockmarked face under greasy hair I remember from high school.

This can’t be the guy who got spitballed and wedgie’d, who was tripped in halls, who had his lunch tray dumped on his lap.

This can’t be that guy, because this guy is glowing.

I see him in the grocery store, pushing a cart with two little kids, smiling brightly like the gold band on his finger.

I go home and look in the mirror and see myself as I am, and I can’t help but wonder how he got everything first.… Read the rest

in Poems

him

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I’m going to take my name
off the list of the ones waiting
for their person.

I’ve found mine.

The hunt has come to an end,
because this one makes me feel
like a baby bird under a wing, 
like the air we need to breathe.


No wonder he leaves me
breathless and tongue-tied.

When he holds me,
all I want in the world is him.

Today’s poetry prompt words were: list, the hunt, and tongue-tied.

Photo by Igor Rodrigues on Unsplash

in 1000 Stories

poison – 6/1000

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As they died with a soft smile, the only thing I could feel was triumph.

Then, the truth hit me like a bucket of cold water.

I’d forgotten to ask for the key.

I pulled at my chains, tugged at the huge lock, but couldn’t break free.

I was trapped with their bodies and the vial of poison that had rolled out of my reach.

I spent hours and bled rivers trying to reach it, that green liquid my only escape from a terrible death, but it was too far away.

I watched their bodies rot, and then I did.… Read the rest

black and white photo of clocks
in Life

i don’t look back, i’m not going that way

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Do you spend more time thinking about the future or the past? Why?

Be here now.

That’s a thing, right?

I feel like I spend half my time in the past and half in the future, and honestly don’t enjoy the present moments as much as I should.

But I worry about the future constantly. I worry about not being able to afford things, specifically, and specifically my rent.

Being that I work at a place that has a food pantry, I see and hear about a lot of homeless people, and I am starting to consider being homeless one … Read the rest

in 1000 Stories

boom – 5/1000

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As the dust settled, she looked around the ruined room.

The staircase had fallen and lay in a wooden heap, trapping her inside the basement.

After all of the noise and chaos she could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Now, all she had to do was wait to be rescued.

She stared up at the little window near the basement ceiling, her only source of light for the last five years.

It had taken her that long to make it, but she knew how to get things to explode.

And the man who took her lay underneath the stairs.… Read the rest