The Versesmith

 Tanka Tuesday #254 The Whirligig # 346 - prompt words in red Another Thanksgiving come and gone.   Thank God, the gods, goddesses, whomever I need to thank for my survival.   The tablecloth un- wrinkled and as pristine white as the snow soon to fall. The plates overflowing with the traditional storybook feast , my family’s menu for the past seven decades .   The turkey, the Parker House rolls , potatoes (white and orange), cranberry sauces (jellied and chunked) pies (pumpkin, pecan, and mince)… and the wine .   A toast or two for luck .   Then it began, right on schedule between the seventh toast and the mince pie. The annual boasting and bluff ing contest between the uncles.   More like a pissing contest, if you ask me.   In the end, the tablecloth is a crime scene in cranberry and blood.   I have my own personal tradition; I bundle myself into my parka and duck out the back kitchen door before the yelling begins. Thanksgiving d...

  QNv 28   Quickly prompt: There are questions that are never answered to anyone’s satisfaction... Write, answering an unanswerable question. If the question is compact enough, you might use it as the title, then write about something else, leaving everyone who reads it scratching their heads and saying: What was that about? (Sorry for the formatting, it didn't publish the way it looked in preview.) https://www.flickr.com/photos/tdlucas5000/9908156636/in/photostream/ Why do we ask the unanswerable? Some things aren’t meant to be known. We must just want some comfort, the reassurance to carry on. For otherwise, we worry, toss and turn in bed, with questions spinning ‘round.   What happens when we die? Has this deli meat gone bad? Will this love last longer than before? Who overflowed the sink? Will that chicken reach the other side?   We’re all like the proverbial chicken, always searching for more. Just one more road, cross o...