Final Year of the Snake Writing Contest: JANUARY Prompt

Happy End of December. I hope that Santa brought you everything you wanted. Unless you were naughty. In which case I’d like to meet you : ) As in the past few months, this month there is no word limit for your entries. HOWEVER, we are also looking for haiku entries, if you are so inclined. The triggers for this month are lines taken from the following two texts:

$20.00

Issue Number 78
da word, by Lee A. Tonouchi

  1. not by choice
  2. I dunno how it happened
  3. I used to go to my Grandma’s house
  4. luckily we saw some
  5. you know she’s just
  6. betta chance than me
  7. wuz crowded but
  8. waiting
  9. From “da word”:

Back den I nevah know. I wuz only one six grader trying fo’ make ‘em into Punahou,
ʻIolani, or Kamehameha. My faddah wanted me fo’ get in. I dunno why.
‘Friggin’ expensive go private school. I nevah like go cuz pressure ah. Get dat
debt dat I gotta repay my faddah now. Not only I gotta be grateful fo’ him
working hod, taking care me aftah my mom wen divorce us, but now I gotta
be tankful dat he sending me to one “good” school so I can go “mainland”
college and come one doctor. And not just anykine mainland school,
preferably one of da ivory league kind schools. So to him I’m just like one
investment. He nevah axed me if I wanted fo’ go private school. I guess wuz
jus so he could brag to our family and all his friends, but wot about my friends?

Issue Number 79, Spring 2001, New Moon

  1. I don’t get it
    from “Rock Fever,” by Juliet S. Kono
  2. better you don’t see
    from “School for Hawaiian Girls,” by Georgia McMillen
  3. it’s not a joke
    from “Charcoal,” by Elmer Omar Bascos Pizo
  4. always been with me
    from “Enflamed,” by Michelle Cruz Skinner
  5. I ain’t fooling around
    from “Da Papah Fooball Champion,” by Cedric Yamanaka
  6. I do not want to stay in the islands
    from “Leaving Paradise,” by Phyllis Hoge Thompson
  7. it’s psychic
    from “The Longest Year,” by Chris Planas
  8. I wasn’t looking for anything
    from “A Simple Fight,” by Noel Abubo Mateo
  9. From “Waipahu One Morning,” by N. R. Salavador

i

chin lifts
in greeting
my neighbor
with the pakalolo
red eyes

ii

the east wind circles
tiles tumble
in eight hands
four walls
bones fall within
mahjong behind blue
tarps

iii

gun
powder scent
lingers on
brass shell
casings lying
near my mail
box

iv

at the cross
roads
sixteen police cruisers
escort a prison van
past
the Church
of the Latter-Day Saints

v

cockerel
crows
challenge
to morning
siren

vi

Catholic school
girls in pleated plaid
skirts
starched white
shirts
and black saddle
shoes
stroll to St. Joseph’s

vii

after seven
years in Manoa
I am
home

You’ll notice that there is a bonus trigger: New Year’s Traditions.

Use one of the prompts to trigger your piece AND if you use one of the lines in your piece, your mojo is strong : )

Rules:

1. You can submit one entry per month. All entries must be posted on the Bamboo Shoots page of the BRP site between January 1 and January 31 at 2:00 p.m. HST.

2. 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.

*Don’t forget to click the “Year of the Snake Contest” button for your entry.

3. Every entry must have a title — unless you choose to enter a haiku, in which case you should simply enter the word haiku in the title section — and the title does NOT count against the word total.

4. In the section below the title where it says:

A blurb about your piece or a good quote from your piece:

You MUST — REALLY NOT KIDDING — include your word count.

Your entry should look like this:

Title: I Don’t Get It / or just Haiku

A blurb about your piece or a good quote from your piece: 20 words

Body:

He got out of his car, came to my window, asked me to roll it down — which I foolishly did — and punched me in the face. . . . blah blah blah . . . Compared to me he was pretty bloody by the time we finished fighting for no reason I could figure out.

5. Winners will be announced with all possible BR speed after 2:00 p.m. HST, January 31, and they’ll win Bamboo Bucks credit to spend in the BRP online bookstore. WOOOOOHOOOOO!!! And may you’ll be published in a future issue of Bamboo Ridge : )

6. Don’t forget that 29 entries from July 2010 through June 2011 were selected for publication in the landmark 100th issue of BAMBOO RIDGE. So you never know. Your piece might be published in a future issue of BAMBOO RIDGE : )

Good luck to you, and write like want the new year to be your year : )

Rules

By participating in the Bamboo Shoots community, you agree to the following rules:
  1. We reserve the right to remove content that promotes hate or gratuitous violence. Be respectful and courteous to others.
  2. All contest challenge entries must be submitted by the designated
  3. Enter as many times as you like using a trigger/prompt (this page).
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.

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