Sorry I have been so quiet. I have had little time to think, let alone write, recently.

It is the time of year when time and energy are in short supply and we are called upon to do more than we have in reserve.

With this in mind, and because I cannot not write every day, I’m embarking on a festive Hundred Word Story Challenge. Something akin to the facebook prompted stories, but hopping into the vagaries of poetry and not always prompted by others. Tiny stories, quick to write and read. Exactly one hundred words long every time. Eek!

To kick off with, the first story is “Jack” – prompted by a magpie who sounded like a jackdaw for a second and brought this image to mind.

“Jack”

Shouted curse-like from the roof. Black and silky, his satin sheen bluish in the winter sunlight. Fright-beaked and glassy-eyed. Head-cocking like a demented maître d’.

Sifted motes of dust dance up as hooked claws rummage for morsels of pasty dropped by the fading lunchtime crowd. The ice in the wind cuts slices from the shoppers, pink cheeked and rheumy, hurrying under threat of snow.

“Jack” harshly rending the quiet reverie of the riverbank. Picking his way through the remnants of another day of cheap chocolate countdown. Of light-up reindeer eared mockery.

“Jack”

“Jack”

“Jack”.