BRAND NEW CYCLE, OLD KEY

J-JAL the elder and J-JAL the younger
(photo: Julie Rumer)

As you race down the hall on unsteady

Legs, glancing back over your shoulder

Giggling and batting your lashes at me

In the space between my life and yours

Stretches all time and none, the circle

Enfolds us both but is loose enough

To let you slip through and back in again

The key rusty and unused glints now

From a corner of my psyche little visited

Beneath a frayed mat I thought to never

Lift again but want very much to move now

In fact, you make me want to be able to move

Proverbial mountains or their metaphoric like

You have me considering ways to prolong my life

Conspiring to help make sure your time here is epic

S.E.Ingraham©

Hair Raising Tales - Prompt 8

Little boys like scary stories

As long as they're make believe

They know what to expect with dragons

And monsters and things that go bump

But nothing about bad people

Or ones they can't trust

Let's hope it stays like that a long while

STONES AND ROCKS AND OTHER THINGS DRAGONS DIG

Off and on for years I've held onto stones

For various reasons - to mark special occasions

Or places - I've kept a stone from that, or there

Or a "worry stone" - something to rub smooth

If vexed or anxious ... and now I have one

That was my mother's that says "Peace" on it

That I know I will carry always probably

Just because

The little boys know more about rocks than stones

Developing in a neighbourhood that's evolving

As they do, they've seen how trucks move

Heavy rocks to make way for houses, roads, parks

Are nonchalant about the ease of these big machines

We have been away most of their young summers

So I'm not sure if they know about skipping stones yet

But look forward to learning, and hope to show

Them this "beach" on the river of the city

Where they were born and live - especially

If the camouflaged little amphibians are there

As the one in this picture is - can you spot him?

He and his brethren spell scientific good health for the river

I can't wait to see them, and the river, and show the boys more

Of what a great place this is ...

ITSY BITSY SPIDER

Aunt Katy opening her spider catcher while J-JAL 1.5 looks on

Daddy long legs - that's so funny

What do they call the lady long legs - mommy?

We remember the bug room at the museum

How Auntie Katy pretended she liked them

But really she's scared of them - bugs that is

But mostly spiders - she even had one on her door

Called Russell - why do you think he had a name?

Our Aunt got a spider-catcher for Christmas

With a plastic spider for practice but even that

Makes her shiver so we don't think she'll

Be using it much --

Funniest thing though, she taught us the spider song

You know the one ..."Itsy Bitsy spider climbed up

The water spout ..." That one? And, she reads

Us "Charlotte's Web" and Charlotte is a pretty spider

And seems very nice - so maybe Auntie Katy will

One day get over being scared of them

But Grandma and Uncle Scott say, they don't think so...

TRAINS AND PLANE AND AUTOMOBILES AND OTHER COOL VEHICLES

Trains and boats and trucks and buses and vans
And airplanes and all the different ways of going places
Make this team very happy
J-JAL 3.5 loves fire-trucks and police cars too -
especially their loud sirens which he can imitate perfectly
And J-JAL 1.5 is big on both city and school buses,
and waves like crazy whenever one goes by
And the Granny-wizard-scribe loves fast cars
and horse-back-riding and motorcycles too
(at least she used to - she's not too sure about those last two any more ...)

Just this week, the boys both got skates - for ice!
Grandpa bought those and helmets too
And that reminded them of tobogganing and sleigh-rides
In this wintry place, it's good to like snow sports
And before they know it, they will probably be skiing
Both downhill and cross-country - especially in the river valley
Where the trails go for miles and miles 

But right now? One of their favourite forms of transportation is:
"Bug-in-a-Rug Day-Home's" Mammoth stroller -
Powered by their Mom who owns it, and the day-home
It's the biggest one in the city, the province - maybe even in Canada
So famous,they got their picture on the front page of the newspaper ...
How cool is that!

(photo courtesy: Edmonton Journal)

PREHISTORIC BUBBLES

(an addition and correction to Day 2 Prompt
as the scribe misunderstood the clue ...)

Last night we read a story

About old dinosaur bones

Then watched "The Land Before Time"

Then looked at old, old stones

We decided we liked our dinos

Still roaming on the land

So Grandma showed us bubbles

Frozen in time's sand

Way inside if we look close

There is a tiny mirror

We can see the three of us

Even though we know we're here

Bubbles frozen in solid rock

Are beautiful and rare

But Grandma says magic lives

Everywhere you look, if you really care

MASKING THE YOUNG - prompt 4

*there is a hidden costumed person in this collage - can you guess who it is and what the significance of the photo might be? The team's scribe couldn't find one of herself or it would be up here also, but this one is very interesting even though the rest of the team doesn't quite "get it" yet ...

  

(We are perusing photos ...)

"What were you on Halloween that year then?"

"A bobot costume ..." J-JAL 3.5 is confident

"A robot?"

"Yes - a bobot costume - R-do-D-do - like Star Wars"

"Oh - I see - do you know the other robot from Star Wars?"

He is regarding me with something between disbelief

and suspicion - are we playing a game?

He knows that I know the answer to this question, don't I?

Maybe his old granny has forgotten..

He answers kindly, "3-See-Pee-Oh" matter-of-factly

"You member now?"

"Yes - yes I do ..." I answer gravely, and pointing at another photo

"What did your little brother dress up as?"

"You're silly!" He giggles, and pinches the flesh over my elbow, my signal that we are done with this

Then runs off to slay dragons, or dinosaurs, or save them in the cave of the dentist

This week's sanctuary - as in, "Come on Grandpa - we have to get safe at the dentist's"

An unlikely, but pleasing choice for asylum; he has been to the dentist and likes the big chair

I sit looking at a photo of J-JAL 1.5 the year he was J-JAL 0.6, and dressed as a hamburger

Wondering if this is the photo that will surface at his wedding to humiliate him

Realize that no, we intend to instill so much self-worth in these children

Mere costumes won't be their undoing - knock on wood, cross fingers, and all other manner of things

To make wishes truth.