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  • Word-Weaver

    By Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris

    Photograph by Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris

    In response to Sarah @ Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie’s Photo Challenge #414

    While tending my garden green
    pulling weeds and tending my beans,
    a blue-bird sat upon my shoulder
    Word-Weaver, she said to me,
    Can you please weave some words
    to save all of our trees?

    As I sat upon my garden bench
    contemplating the little birds wish,
    a big old toad jumped up beside me
    Word-weaver, his deep voice croaked
    Can you please weave some words
    to save our swamps and streams?

    Walking along the river bank my mind so full I could barely think
    A loud buzzing filled the air,
    an army of striped bees said to me,
    Word-Weaver can you weave some words to save our flowers, please?

    My mind whirling, I strolled down
    to the seas edge and was amazed
    to see the biggest whale I’d ever seen out in the deep blue waiting for me
    Word-Weaver, he blew to me, please weave some words to save our seas?

    The Earth beneath my feet shuddered, a vine full of luscious purple and white blooms curled around my waist then the blossoms opened and Mother Earth spoke, “Word-Weaver, would you weave some words to save me please?”

  • I Am Not A Man

    By Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris

    Image credit: Amine M’Siouri @ Pexels

    In response to Sadje’s Picture Post above for May 16, 2022 #WDYS – #Whatdoyousee #134

    __________

    I am not a man
    do not try to mold
    me into your image

    You are not a woman
    do not deem to understand
    my mind, my body, my soul

    I am a woman
    I own this body
    I have been gifted with

    Do not dictate to me what
    to do with the seed of your loins released in your pleasure

    Do persecute, arrest and prosecute those who pleasured themselves
    without care or responsibility

  • Across The Sea

    By Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris

    Eugi’s Causerie

    In response to Eugi’s – Weekly Prompt May 10, 2022 Guiding Light

    Across the wide and open sea
    my deepest love waits for me
    A lantern could not guide this night
    Only loves pure and brilliant light

    Leads me to where he will be
    At home again on sacred soil
    Beside the Moors and Cypress trees
    Beneath the moon on bended knee

    Within his palm will be a ring
    a circle of gold with gilded stones
    He’ll ask of me to be his bride
    We’ll mark our vows on aging tomes

    What’s this the Captain does advise
    The seas they’ve angered the tides
    do rise to shake and thrash
    the ship to shreds

    I fear my love I shall never see
    this ship will soon be lost at sea
    As it slides into a watery grave
    That light of love begins to fade

    Farewell my love for it is true
    Another I have never loved like you but now it’s time for me to go – Goodbye my Love
    Goodbye

  • Cee’s FOTD – May 16, 2022

    Cee’s Photo Challenge

    #stinewriting Blog Flower of the Day

    First Gardenia of the Season
    Photographed by: Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris
  • Drumbeat of Insanity

    By Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris

    Bass Drum

    The Sunday Whirl Wordle #553
    Hosted by bwarren
    Prompt words are:
    star shelf growl slip open flower crow against prowl beneath beat shot
    _______________

    The drumbeat of insanity
    opens his mind to hate
    to prejudice against the innocent
    Evil leads him to prowl for those
    he believes beneath his star-power

    Not a growl did he offer his prey
    slipping between pots filled
    with the bright flowers of spring
    Black crow flies in warning
    no one sees, no one hears

    Then a shot times three
    brought death thrice over
    Inside a mother pushes her
    child beneath a shelf
    A man standing guard – falls

    The mechanism made by man
    allows a boy to kill six more
    Still we fight for our rights
    our right to buy, carry and kill
    a weapon forged in the bowels of hell

  • Weekend Sky #63

    Posted in response to Hammad Rais Blog

    Sunset over homes on Emerald Isle, NC 2015
    Sunset driving home Wilmington, NC 2021
    Sunset on Oak Island, NC 2022

    All photographs taken by and property of Gypsie-Ami OffenbacherFerris

  • The Little Door

    By Gypsie -Ami Offenbacher-Ferris

    Photograph by KL Caley

    In response to KL Caley’s Write Photo Challenge.

    I found them accidentally, late one afternoon. I wasn’t very old, just starting my teenage journey. I hated it, being a teenager. If I were honest, it wasn’t being a teenager exactly, although the pimples, flat chest and stringy hair I now sported, did not endear me to these years.

    No, it was the other teenagers. Hateful creatures all, or at least most. I had gone from being a happy-go-lucky, out-going, nature-loving tomboy, to an outcast. I don’t know what happened the summer before, but whatever it was didn’t happen to me.

    The girls I had played kickball with and climbed trees with; now had breasts and wore makeup and painted their nails. The boys had grown whiskers and gotten taller, and cuter.

    Anyway, I became the whipping girl for the entire school. Of course, this is fifty years ago, way before anti-bullying rallies were being held.

    There was one girl though. She looked to be my age but she was tiny. I don’t mean little, she was the smallest almost adult I had ever seen. She started talking to me and we became best friends very quickly. Only, she never invited me to her place and never accepted my offer to have her come to mine.

    She got on the bus at the stop right after mine. I figured her mom dropped her off, because I didn’t see any farms or houses anywhere near her stop. That’s why I decided to follow her, curiosity mixed with concern. Mostly curiosity.

    Except, on the bus home that day; the kids were especially vicious. Calling me names, saying I was crazy because I talked to myself all the time. I told them I was not crazy, I was talking to my best friend. One of the girls yelled out that I had an invisible friend and everybody started laughing. I turned to talk to my new best friend, but she was gone. She must’ve gotten off the bus early to get away from the awful teenagers. I felt very sad that I didn’t see her go.

    On impulse, I decided to get off at the stop after mine. My friends bus stop, hoping she would be there. After the bus left, I saw her walking through a field, towards a mound I had never noticed before. As I got closer, I saw there was a door, a little door!

    My friend fit through it perfectly. I waited a few minutes and then knocked lightly on the door. My friend answered wearing the prettiest dress I had ever seen. As she moved, the colors ran together and seemed to glisten.

    I asked if this was where she lived and she said yes, this was where all the little people lived. I peeked inside and what I could see was wondrous. Multicolored flowers everywhere, a bright blue sky dotted with silver- lined clouds. Hills that went on forever, covered in bright green grass slowly moving back and forth in a sweet, warm breeze.

    She started to close the door, but I asked her to please let me see one more time. I asked if I could come in. She shook her head no and said you had to be one of the little people to come in. I said I wished I was a little person. She looked up at me and asked if I really and truly wanted to be. I said that yes, I did, more than anything.

    Anyway, this is my letter to you, Mom and Dad, to let you know I’ve gone to live with the little people in the mound, up the hill and in the field. Don’t worry, I’ll be happy here.

  • His Hats

    By Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris

    2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “hat.” Use it literally or metaphorically. Have fun!

    He loved hats. Didn’t matter what kind. Male, female, baseball, frilly, top hats, floppy hats, black hats, purple hats. If we went into any establishment that had hats for sale or even on display, he just had to try them on. All of them!

    Imagine being in a hurry at the gas station, running late for some event or another and he spies a rack of cowboy hats mixed with baseball hats at the register, along with a ladies sun hat or two. It didn’t matter if they fit or not, he had to try them on. Every single one!

    I tried to be diligent to due financial restrictions and of course, the old “you don’t get everything you ask for or want adage,” but I’ll admit at Christmas and on his birthday, he was loaded up with hats.

    Even before Captain Jack Sparrow hit the movie screen, his favorite was his authentic pirate hat, a true tricorn purchased somewhere for some exorbitant amount I can not even remember. If he wasn’t wearing it, he was carrying it with him wherever he went.

    Then came kindergarten and hats were not allowed, period. No hats of any kind, not ever, not even on casual day. Things did not go well for a very long time, until I let him carry or wear it in the car on the way to school. Then he had to take it off and put it in the front seat with me, so I wouldn’t be lonely and miss him while he was
    gone.

    When he emerged from class, the first thing he went for was his pirate hat, before he even said hello to me. I wish I had that pirate hat now. I miss him.

  • The Red Rose

    By Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris

    In response to Rochelle Wisoff’s Friday Fictioneers prompt picture! Write a story in 100 words or less using the prompt above and post it to the inLinkz List.

    Picture by Dale Rogerson

    The magnificent red rose stood in an antique vase on the corner of her old writing desk. The scent from this single, red rose nearly overwhelming, yet oddly calming.

    The rose arrived every single Friday the thirteenth without fail, without a card stating who it was from or from where. Inevitably, no matter who stayed in this room, day or night; the rose appeared as if out of thin air.

    Butler Joseph stated the red rose never appeared until the new lady of the house had arrived, so it was definitely meant for her.

    Lady Annalisa was not convinced, yet.

  • Straight-Line Chandelier

    Please check out Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge to discover more about this unique challenge! Current Challenge Series – Fun with Lines Today’s Challenge is STRAIGHT LINES.

    Photograph by Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris Hotel Lobby – Savannah, GA

    A line is straight
    Only to those
    Looking for it