Oh, give me strength to meet the quiet gray, when stillness hums in ringing ears and aching knees creak and complain. Let my tired hands find purpose in the day, And lift this fog with coffee and some toast. #poetry #aiart

Not luxury affordable townhomes ... yet. Picture taken a few minutes out of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Silos and sheds on a farm. What colours! #landscape #photography #calgary

Pedestian crossing sign, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Now I've forgotten what street this is, but there's yarn shop on it. #Calgary #cityscape #photography

Crossfield, Alberta, Canada. Iconic prairie scene with train and grain elevator. It's unclear if this one is still used. Apparently, there were six wooden elevators here in the 1960s alone. #photography #landscape​ #CrossfieldAlberta ​#AlbertaHistory ​#GrainElevator #CanadianPrairies

"At the heart of every story," she thought, "is change." She tapped her pen against the blank page and watched an ice cube melt in her empty glass. She sighed. The only change in her life was her own life quietly melting away, unseen. #Microfiction #vss #aiart

Dog in sun #blueskyartshow #warmth

The front door clicked, closing off the morning rush of dishes and lost keys. Silence. He found his mug. The heat and quiet promise of the morning was gone, leaving tepid black water. This wasn't coffee, he thought. It was a liquid apology for a race to nowhere. #vss #microfiction #aiart #coffee

Last one! “Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?” Menelaus took Helen's cold hands. She met his gaze, regal, but changed. He’d burnt the world to get to this point. He hesitated, then let go, shouting orders to escort her to the black ships. #Microfiction #aiart #vss

"Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?" Odysseus stayed in the shadows as Helen passed. He’d spied, lied, and killed for this. Now she was with Menelaus, the city in ruins. He pulled his cloak tight. Menelaus could keep the face. He wanted home. #Microfiction #aiart #vss

"Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?" Nestor leaned on his staff as Helen passed, her beauty still intact. He winced, his bad knee hurt. Ten years of blood and here she was, untouched. "Everything is broken," he thought. "Except the one thing that broke us." #Microfiction #aiart #vss

​"Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?" ​Diomedes found Helen in a corridor. He ordered guards to get her to the black ships, then turned away, clenching his fists until the knuckles turned white. ​"Ten years of blood," he thought, "but she is still worth it." #Microfiction #aiart #vss

If there's no #vssdaily word—an inspirational loss most keenly felt—I still feel inspired to write a #vss story all the same. Not #stories that are all the same, mind you, but stories with #words that might inspire others to #write stories, or #poems, or todo lists written in cursive. #vssdaley

When I get up the dark still clings, my skull a muffled bell, the acheing years. The dog waits for food, tail ticking time. I count the days I might still rise. Yet, rise I do! Groaning, ringing, mortal, because the kettle needs filling, and the world won’t wait. #poetry #badpoetry #aiart

A Grimm tale: Gretel reached for her pocket. Nothing on the linen dress from her new stepmother. No place for rocks or toys. Her real mother’s dress was gone. She walked with Daddy and Hansel into the woods, smiling, while her thumb searched for what was lost. #Microfiction #aiart #vss

Aesop leaned in: “Inviting Stork had been Fox's therapist’s idea: ‘Make new friends!’ They sat at Fox’s, with rabbit stew. Stork leaned in, but the dishes were too shallow for her long, narrow beak. She politely excused herself. A chill crept in. Was the stew too bland?” #Microfiction #aiart #vss

Edward the bear was dragged down the stairs, upside-down, clutching his old honey pot. His head hitting the carpet was a drum leading to an absurd future he couldn't control. "Some days, the hardest thing isn't holding onto honey, but hope," he thought. #Microfiction #aiart #vss #stoicism

A Grimm Tale: From the cupboard, Gretel watched the old woman feed Hansel. The gingerbread house seemed a dream when, lost, they stumbled on it. Gretel rattled the cookie door. Her cupboard wasn’t the only cage. They were prisoners of the desire for excess. #Microfiction #aiart #vss #stoicism

Aesop leaned in: “The fox tapped the vine’s stem. Sometimes, that was enough to bring down a cascade of grapes. Today, they swayed just out of reach, their skins straining to hold their juice. He sniffed. Sweet but with a sour edge, like laughter behind his back.” #Microfiction #aiart #vss

Circle of life and all that. Dead salmon in Williams Creek, Langley, British Columbia. #metrovancouver #salmon #photography

Zarathustra stood on the steps: "When I came from the dust of books, yes, romantic fiction, I came into the crowds, blinking and cringing. The camel must become the lion! Oh, you small people, you name your mediocrity Virtue. Look! Break the tablets! Be hard! Laugh!" #Microfiction #aiart #vss

Aesop leaned in: The Hare woke, startled. Unease gripped him. The race! He shot up. He had planned to saunter across the finish line, nonchalant, yawning, but dread was curdling his stomach. Was that the Tortoise ahead? He had overslept. Shame burned his ears. #Microfiction #aiart #vss #promptshare

The wind and rain drop the last gold leaves. Should I sing? Am I Whitman? No, the world is indifferent and unrelenting. ​The bare branches show the truth: another year gone. I have one less season left to see. #poetry #PoetryWriting #Autumn

​"Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?" Ajax the Lesser stepped on a corpse, and grinned as Helen passed by with her guards. He had leapt from the Wooden Horse and cut through anyone in his way. Cassandra might be in the temple, but he'd take what he wanted. #Microfiction #aiart #vss

​"Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?" Neoptolemus wiped blood from his blade and watched Helen. He felt a stirring beneath the rage that had killed Priam and flung a child from the walls. He felt Achilles' absence and knew that wound would never close. #Microfiction #aiart #vss

He put down the teacup, carefully, wary of the tremors in his hand. The photo seemed blurred, like his memories. What was the dog's name? "Dog." Its name was "Dog." Who will recall this moment? He sighed. Everything passes. Whatever happened to Dog? #Microfiction #photo #blackandwhite #vss

The contest: Tortoise selected a sunny patch and planted carefully. Then he sat down to rest and relax a bit. The watering can sat quietly by the fence, untouched. “Tomorrow,” he murmured, sipping a lemonade, “or the day after.” #microfiction #aiart #vss

The contest: Toad consulted his almanac, but because he couldn’t read he held it upside down. He planted with gusto, sowing seeds across frostbitten furrows. “Winter roots are the sturdiest,” he said, and pulled his scarf closer. #microfiction #aiart #vss

The contest: Hare rose early, eager to get going. He scattered fertilizer like confetti: a bit here, a bit there, a generous heap everywhere. By noon, the soil steamed and bubbled like soup. “Growth,” said Hare, “needs to be encouraged.” #microfiction #aiart #vss

The contest: The hare proposed it over coffee. “To see who grows the largest vegetable,” he said and twitched his whiskers. Toad croaked, Tortoise blinked. Three friends, one field, and a very fine idea. #Microfiction #aiart #vss

Aesop leaned in: A parched crow staggered to a jug. It had water, but it was too low to reach. Frustrated and angry, she grabbed a clawful of pebbles. Cursing her luck and the arid land, she threw them in. About to fly away, she noticed the water was nearly within reach. ​#Microfiction #aiart #vss

"Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?" Aeneas ducked to hide, his father groaning on his back. Helen passed by under guard. The stench of gore was clung to them all. His son grabbed his tunic. He felt no hatred, only the pressing need to save what he could. #Microfiction #aiart #vss

Piglet was hurt. Edward the bear didn’t want to share a gift for Donkey. The balloon would have to do. It was all he had left from his own party, although it was now sagging a little. Perhaps Donkey wouldn’t mind or notice Piglet’s own deflating feelings. #Microfiction #aiart #vss

"Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?" Antenor stood next to his house as Helen walked to the black ships. His house was spared but filled with grief of sons lost to war. He shook his head. He had wanted her returned, but being right brought no satisfaction. #Microfiction #aiart #vss

Edward the bear sighed and put down the phone. Rain drummed against the window. He leaned back, eyes closed, sinking in the sodden gloom of a day squandered scrolling through outrage and trivia. He felt the pangs of regret. He should have gone to visit Piglet. #Microfiction #aiart #vss

The morgenblitz begins to blutz, The klattergeist prepares the flutz. But pause we must, in grummelcue, A schnoffelpot of morning brew. #nonsensepoetry #coffee #aiart

The Hare of Herz, schleppen soul, Did grumble #creep past garten wall, With flummenstick in krummenhole, And Tortoise took a silent brall. #poetry #nonsensepoetry #vss365

A noise. Piglet froze, leaves rustled like a thousand tiny footfalls. He had to cross the log. Fear made the air #creep closer, pressing on his pink skin. It's only a stick, he thought, angry at himself. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and stepped forward. #Microfiction #vss365 #vss

More neon, more rain. Time was the only honest #creep in this city: it never paid up, just kept taking, like that dame in the office yesterday. She took him for a sucker all right, but this was a chance to get back at the Gaufini brothers. Should he take the job? #Microfiction #vss365 #vss

The vine's onward #creep Red and gold along the wall Has it slowed... or stopped? #Haiku #vss365

The Hare of Herz, with schnutzenglee so bright, Would watch the grüven dark enborkenake, When #heliacal star revealed its light, The würstenzeit in Spring could klugelmake! #nonsensepoetry #vss365

The clay was cold, Enkidu ash, grief a fist in Gilgamesh’s throat. He ran crying through Uruk’s streets to the eastern wall, just in time to see the #heliacal rise of a star whose name had had forgotten, a sign of his own end. Was this bone-deep fear all he had left? #Microfiction #vss365 #vss

The city’s glare through the blinds barely lit the office. She walked in, #heliacal rising, trouble incarnate. “Start talking,” I growled, lighting a smoke. She hit the light switch, flooding the room. The case began. #Microfiction #vss365 #vss

#Heliacal rise ...and set, I had to look up what this meant, and why. Not literally. I looked down, at my own star, sitting, warm, inside. Outside the world turned. The earth brightened, cloudy skies, the real stars hidden. #Haiku #vss365

The Hare of Herz did grubble night, When schreckenglück did wimmel scream, His brown fur coat, a shade too light, Fled #terror schmerz inside his dream. #nonsensepoetry #vss365

A Grimm Tale: The latch clicked. The door creaked open. Blood filled the basin, congealing, dripping onto a gore-splattered floor. Her throat seized, a silent scream stuck fast. No. She couldn’t let #terror win. She had to be strong. She had to think. #Microfiction #vss365 #vss

Rain slicked the empty neon streets. He saw the gun in the goon's pocket; that was the easy part. A chilling dread pooled in his gut and heated his brain. The #terror was this space before the shot. He needed a diversion, and quick. #Microfiction #vss365 #vss

A shivering leaf holds the branch tight in #terror It's time almost up Inevitably ​the stem must break, the leaf fall, leaving only wind. #Haiku #vss365

#Martian -red leaves fall From a branch far out of reach Gentle asteroids ​Far cold red planet, distance defines it, a dot, as autumn light fails #vss365 #Haiku

I pulled up my collar against the rain. My badge meant nothing here. I might as well have been a #martian, a bizarre alien to these people who distrusted anyone who looked like me. I kicked a rock into the street. How did I become such a cold bastard? #vss365 #martian #Microfiction

Xerxes watched the sea tear his bridge apart, the martial fury mounting in him, raw, alien, #martian. He saw red. How dare tides and storms insult his will, the will of the King of Kings? He ordered the insolent sea to be whipped with chains. #vss365 #martian #Microfiction