Third Writing Prompt for November — Our 100-word writing contest returns

Aloha, aloha, aloha.  Dis da tird an las prompt for Novembah.  100 words only.  Not 99, not 101, but 100 words on da nosy-lani.

from “Painted Passages”
by Gail N. Harada

1.

The even weave of the canvas
becomes a familiar
as childhood, perhaps
an expanse of sky or sea
the ground we walk on barefoot,
and the task at hand seems clear.
It is what we wish for,
secretly,
lake a craving for tamarinds
or shave ice,
or the taste of salt
water.
It is a beginning.

Bamboo Ridge, The Writer’s Quarterly, NO. 13, December 1981 – February 1982, New Moon

* * * * *

from “Hajimeru”
by Pat Matsueda

This story was written for Chloe, a nine-year-old girl who is Irish, American Indian, Korean, and Japanese.  The title is a Japanese word that means “to begin.”

There was once a child who used to be a wild animal.  When she was an animal, she would steal down to the village at night and, bathed in the light of the moon and the stars, drink the rich water of the rice paddies.  She would drink till she heard a human sound then, jerking up her head — the water drops beading on her chin like tiny pearls — turn in the direction of the forest and steal away.

Bamboo Ridge, the Writers’ Quarterly, No. 14, 1982, First Quarter

Wow.  Good stuff.  But write whatevahs.  Right now, laulau. 100 words.  Les do it!

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