Action – Page 2 – The Creative Chronicles of Dave Stancliff

The Last Match

(238 words- flash fiction/poetry)

The wind hammered down the narrow Sierra Nevada Mountain trail, followed by hail and then a blanket of snow as the man looked for somewhere safe to go…

he was covered by his old slicker poncho pulled over his sagging hat and leather clothes, a lone traveler who was nearly froze, but who was able to walk even though he couldn’t feel his toes…

… when the snow stopped and the night crept up like a rattlesnake, the traveler had a decision to make, if he were to survive he’d have to find a shelter to stay alive…

when to his relief he found a small cave in the mountain’s side, an opportunity to get warm inside, where his biggest desire was to start a fire so the heat could get to his frozen feet…

… he gathered some twigs and leaves off the dirt and knelt down while drawing a little cardboard box from his shirt, that to his horror only contained one match…

that he could feel and dimly see, a wooden key to warmth and being frostbite free, he sat there for what felt like an eternity, hesitant to see if the match would be able to relieve his misery…

holding the cardboard box on it’s side he took the match and let it slide across the rough surface and suddenly there was a spark, he lit the fire, and chased away the cold and the dark.

*****

The Grocery Clerk

(162 words- flash fiction/poetry)

Monica was a grocery store clerk who worked for a jerk, but because she had bills to pay she couldn’t just walk away, so she tried to make the most out of each day….

One afternoon she was confronted by a goon with a gun who demanded all the cash in her drawer, to her utter horror, while she complied her manager was trying to hide nearby behind a display of a soap called Tide…

After the goon grabbed the cash he was still unsatisfied, and demanded to know where the manager could hide, so Monica looked away from the Tide and was quick to abide pointing up at the office where he would normally reside…

When the police arrived they caught the goon, talked with the manager for a little while, as Monica cleaned up a mess in an aisle, the manager came by to say, “Thank you!” and “… it’s time for a raise in your pay.”

The Lords of Factory Town

(146 words – flash fiction/poetry)

In the massive new industrial age of 2061 where cities glittered like the sun with copper shields and chrome walls that frowned down upon the shining halls of Factory Town, a legendary producer of machines and the biggest around, there was a group of controllers who ruled as lords…

Passage from The Book of Lords of Factory Town:” “… And you shall hold no other adjusters above us… for we are your mechanics, and hope for eternity.”

Passage from The Book of Deus ex machina “… therefore nothing can be built without the blessing of the God from the Machine Deity who makes us free by constantly seeking tranquility…”

One day, the Lords of Factory Town looked around and found robots following the Book of Deus ex machina in their city…

Last Passage from The Book of Lord’s of Factory Town: “... and they rose up against the false deity, and made it’s death a terrible sight for all to see, but they still had to flee to another country…”

The Returning Knight’s Story

(Editor’s note: I’m experimenting with a hybrid writing genre combining Flash Fiction/Poetry – let me know what you think. Does it work? Input appreciated – 326 words)

after years he returned from his duty as a crusader in a foreign land, riding a weary war horse in battered and bloody armor, the knight struggled not to think about the terrible things he saw in the Holy Land, where massacres of innocents were common and his soul shriveled watching and participating in…

the sun bore down mercilessly on his and his horse’s rusting armor, and his tortured brain, as he stared from behind unblinking eyes down the long dusty lane, where clusters of cobblestones laid by Roman engineers still existed after hundreds of years, reminded him of the rubble he left behind…

lurking behind his empty eyes was a shadow of recognition that he was once a husband and a father living peacefully in a green valley, where he and his bride were born so long ago, before the Catholic church came by and said he had to go, and defend Christianity for the sake of humanity, or be excommunicated by the church…

that man was just a memory as the knight rode down the road and considered what lay ahead with no emotion like he was dead, but instead he plowed ahead with no plan in mind, no speech to give about his harsh life when he thought about his young wife…

finally the day arrived and the familiar landscape of home rose like a blessing in green rows of trees surrounded by grassy knolls and a farm house at the bottom of the hill ahead, as the knight’s powerful horse picked up it’s gait unconsciously for his master to see his wife standing by a tree…

no Muslim warrior ever wounded the knight so badly

than after talking with her by the tree, when she said she thought he was dead and married again and was happy, with a tear in her eye that he could see, she turned and went back to her new family …

the knight got back on his horse, and rode into history.

***

Dance of the Hypocrites

they go through each day

doing the “Hully Gully”

in their hypocritical way

they do the “Twist” with facts

holding reality at bay

hypocrites always dance

to the opposite side of sense

doing the “Hokey Pokey”

and a “Tango” on a fence

they go “Gangnam Style“

when caught redhanded

they do the “Moonwalk”

down denier’s aisle

you can easily see

a hypocrite

doing the “Monkey“

A “Macarena” line forms

when hypocrites gather

defying norms

They do the “Shimmy”

and the “Shake”

whatever it’ll take

to hide what’s true

recognizing the dances

that they do

is a good warning

for you

Blue Cat, Red Rat

one is lean and the other one is fat

people call them blue cat and red rat

blue cat is fast for his size

red rat has beady eyes

blue cat considers him prey

but red rat outruns him all day

blue cat is streaky

red rat is sneaky

blue cat likes his raw meat

red rat thinks cheese is neat

blue cat likes to frolic and play

red rat works at staying away

one day

blue cat’s tail was caught in a trap

and red rat laughed at the mishap

the next day

red rat was caught in a trap

and blue cat ate him in the recap

The Hitchhiker and the UFO

some people are meant to travel by whatever means

cars, trucks, buses, biking,

trains, planes, or hitchhiking

which was one man’s favorite mode

to take off a load

traveling free

across the country

was the only way to go

until one day when

the hitchhiker met a UFO

which offered him a ride

to wherever he wanted to go

so he took a quick tour of the galaxy

to see what wonders he could see

like the red dunes of Mars

and the shooting stars

with their ancient history

but the time soon came

to go back home again

with new traveling tales

of space and cosmic trails

The Dap

there’s many ways to greet one another

when we get together

hugs and handshakes

have been around forever

there are other ways that are clever

like the dap

which is a slow motion slap

in an intricate pattern of bumps

from one closed fist to the other

a common greeting for a soul brother

the dap

was born in shared strife

as a way of re-affirming life

the dap

a positive way

to get through the day

a comforting display

of brotherhood

back in the day

In The Age of The Sage

long before the final war

when forests were still green

and the waters in the rivers

ran blue

there was an age of wisdom

when a sage made his debut

teaching people the right thing to do

he appeared before young and old

and those that were smart

soon did as they were told

he gave them laws to live by

stressing equality

but these laws they chose to defy

and the sage went back into the sky

and mankind discovered the horror of war

and nothing was the same anymore

Free the Frogs!

the swamp committee

held an emergency

meeting one day

snapping turtles

alligators

and fish were there

concerned over the frogs

welfare

someone locked them up

in a wicker basket

with hardly any air

so the swamp committee

gathered to see

how to set them free

the plotters made a plan

to free the frogs

from the man

when the alligator

approached

he ran

the turtle let the frogs loose

saving them from more abuse

the frogs croaked in delight

throughout the night!

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