My Measuring Stick - some things shadow our lives. It’s only when we confront them that we can recognise that perhaps we give the past more importance than it deserves. To see the photo that inspired this story go here.
In Apollo’s Lyre for the first time this month and so is my friend John Ritchie so check out both stories
http://apollos-lyre.tripod.com/id345.html
http://apollos-lyre.tripod.com/id348.html
A new poem – I’m not really a spoil-sport. I wrote it for a challenge in www.writewords.org.uk and it had to be about aspects of Christmas we didn’t like! I remembered the old film Meet Me In Saint Louis – movie magic – so thanks, Judy Garland.
Have Yourself a Tawdry Little Christmas
© Oonah V Joslin 2011
Disappointment
when the bright, shiny wrappers
fall to the floor
like a bride underneath all that dress
same old skin
the turkey de-fleshed, devoid of stuffing
dirty dinner plates
same old bone
the cracker pulled
same old jokes
paper hat that never fits
tinsel and glitz
tat that looks so drab on boxing day
TV ads for next year’s holiday
the next big fix
the next the next the next
crunch
crisis before the champagne pops
and flattens.
Give us some credit.
We’re not completely dim.
The stars are far away
in Heaven and Hollywood.
This tawdry little show will win
no Oscars and year on year I see
a little more magic
disappear.
Now update yourseld with the rest of my Christmas reads:
At The Linnet’s Wings, which is a superb mag based in the auld country, I have a little story that might bring back memories of Christmas past and I don’t think mine were the only parents who found this solution to the problems of Christmas Eve. Can you finish the logo? – I’d Love a…
Crumpled Note is up today at Postcardshorts and I notice that there a couple by my friend Sandra Crooks too so do go and have a read st that site – each story is post card length but they are little gems (if I say so myself).
Elf Day Santa embraced capitalism along with the whole commercial ethos in the C20th – to the detriment of his “elf” it seems 
Nathan tells me this is my 72nd Microhorror and one of his favourites thus far. My husband laughed – hopes I haver ordered pork for Christmas Day.
A Final Seal – poem at Bewildering Stories
Next up, a little unexpectedly, this very short short in Postcardshorts Public Transport You know the scenario – it a familiar one. So glad to be in this little gem of a writing site for the first time.
Department Store Friends who have been out with me know that I hate shops unless they are on the High Street – and I loath Department Stores and Shopping Malls because I have no sense of direction. I get lost and panic. Once, having passed the same rail of dresses in Fenwicks in Newcastle for the 4th time, I asked a total stranger how to get out of there… I was within sight of the exit but it led into an arcade and so I couldn’t see the difference. “Just past those hats” – she said. Another time I was on the wrong floor but I couldn’t find the escalator. I’m the kind of person whom store detectives watch and assistants ask if I need any help – I always look a bit lost I suppose or up to something – looking around me to try to ascertain where I am. And have you ever walked into one of those damned mirrors they use to confuse the hell out of you? Well maybe it just seems that way… I have. Bump – sorry madam – oh! it’s me! 
Nuff said.
In this week too are my Writewords friends, Sandra Crooks and David Harper – well done you two! What a romantic pair you are .
Don’t forget to read these too
http://www.everydayfiction.com/biting-the-hand-that-feeds-you-by-sandra-crook/
http://www.everydaypoets.com/believers-ground-by-james-graham
