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Bamboo Shoots Prompt for Year of the Horse
June Prompts from Bamboo Ridge Issue #87
- in a few short hours, the sun will be rising
From “Leaving Kalihi,” by Cedric Yamanaka - he never takes his eyes off the
From “Sakaula,” by Emelihter Kihleng - here — here — wait — wait — where stay?
From “One Nada Voice,” by Gary Pak - we were one of the very few people
From “Star Mokihana,” by Stu Hada - some dreams are just that, dreams
From “Mango Lessons,” by Michael Little - he laughed again
From “In the Time Before Light,” by Ian MacMillan - what do they do?
From “Cane Fire,” by Naoto Nakashima - “I understand,” I said
From “Husbands and Wives,” by Kenny Tanemura - From “How I learned to Write My Name,” by Brandy Nalani McDougall
It is 1981 Kula,
and my father, cloudy and high on booze
and pakalolo, for all his love songs
of rain and the mountain mist in unable
to stay. My mother, unable to leave
him, showers, during his frantic search
through her purse for money, clattering loose
change against house keys, for any green bill
with a face. As an afterthought, he turns,
concerned now with my witness, young eyes. Hunched
over the kitchen table, I scribble
nonsense. He bribes, “I’ll give you a dollar
if you don’t tell.” I won’t. But I pretend
not to hear him, going on with the scratch,
scrawling the illegible string of loops
I insist is real writing. He doesn’t
bother to yell. He has no time for it,
knows he must leave before the sound of warm
water, unsteady thumps against the tub
and her skin stops.
Rules
- We reserve the right to remove content that promotes hate or gratuitous violence. Be respectful and courteous to others.
- All contest challenge entries must be submitted by the designated
- Enter as many times as you like using a trigger/prompt (this page).
- Contest Challenge entries can be prose (including short stories, nonfiction essays, or whatever you write), poetry, or plays -- or any type of hybrid writing you dream up.
- Every entry must have a title -- unless you choose to enter a haiku, in which case you can simply enter the word haiku in the title section.
- All content/entries should be original work. You retain ownership of your entries; however, we may ask to use them elsewhere on the site or on social media to help promote Bamboo Ridge and/or the Bamboo Shoots online writing community.
- Winners will be announced with all possible speed after the end of each month. Winners receive 10 Bamboo Bucks credit to spend in the BRP online bookstore. Bamboo Bucks have no monetary value outside of the online store.
- Entries may also be selected for publication in the regular Bamboo Ridge Journal. If your piece is chosen, the editors will contact you via the email address on file.
- Please note that you need not enter the contest challenge in order to post on Bamboo Shoots. You may post other writing if you choose. We welcome that here: Click this link to go to Shoot da Breeze.
This prompt is closed for submissions.