A Is for Ant

Adam Ant spies A
Aligns with the other ants
Alpha morsel calls

Balanced on their backs
Bony shoulders now do haul
Burdened with the spoils

Carries, insect thief
Crumbs of alphabet larger
Curbs its little life

Delicious letter
Day’s insect diet broken
Doubled abdomen

Enlarged belly forms
Endangered, about to burst
Escalates and booms.

Fumes spread and disperse
Four odours now lingering
Filmy veil of smoke

Giant anthill sees
Great gastronomic chances
Gather now to grab

Heavy letters move
Hanging on broadened ant backs
Heads small and unseen.

“I can scarcely speak.”
Ichabod ant states gravely.
“I ate all the letters.”

J still lives, hidden
Just because the ants don’t want
Jarring words and jokes.

Mirrors of the Mind by Michelle Liew is a collection of psychological and supernatural short stories that explore the quiet unease beneath ordinary moments. These are not tales of spectacle, but of subtle fracture — where memory distorts, silence speaks, and the self is not always singular. In these stories, what is unseen often carries the greatest weight, and what lingers is not what is shown, but what is felt

The Ledger of Waves

Today marks the day of the 2004 Tsunami that struck the shores of several countries worldwide.

Leaving devastation.

Loss.

A weight that must be remembered.

🌊🌊🌊🌊

I watched, my waves tense, as children left chocolate wrappers on the pristine sand. Fishermen lingered at the shore, ignoring the curious dolphins poking their noses into their nets. I regarded them coldly – patient and endless, as they pursued their selfish joys.

Waiting.

They were close. Too close.

The tension caused my wavy hands to clench, ready to unleash. The veins in them were about to burst. I found myself listening to my rising impatience.

I pulled back further, gathering myself. My form stretched across horizons, waiting to release. There were the lovers. The thoughtless fishermen. The wrapper-throwing children. I recall bearing the careless weight of their ways. Each mistake, each inconsiderate act, each denial – bore into my waves.

My spindly, watery hands stilled. Grey covered the skies, along with a blanket of silence. The wind stopped blowing on my cue. Thunder growled softly, ready when I was. I stayed upright, silent, as all on the distant shores laughed without care. I waited, testing their false confidence. Nothing they did – wasted food, offensive plastic bottles – escaped my notice. I stood poised.

Ready for the inevitable.

Meanwhile, plastic bottles lay, unrisen corpses, on the shore. An angry crowd of thunderclods gathered, silent, in the background. In my watery hands were dangerous nets, uneaten food, dead fish – ready to return to those who owned them.

I carried their forgotten burdens. Each small, yet costly mistake.

Their responsibility. In my grasp.

My dirty blue fingers painfully remembered each transgression. Each misstep cut my sides.

Still, I lingered, patient, endless. Responsibility cavorted, unaware, on the trash-ridden shore.

I remembered. Always remembered. So would they.

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Please find a book of my horror microfiction, Echoes in the Dark, free for download here.

Drooping Rose

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com

If I were to ask you if you’ve been misunderstood before, you would say yes without a doubt. Why? You’re a human being. All of us would have been misunderstood or abused to some degree. 

We should never condone mistreatment, but we should respond to it in a positive manner. Were we being misunderstood? Was the person who mistreated us in a bad mood that spilt over into his or her relationship with you? Responding with some empathy goes some way to halting the mistreatment. Escalating it in such circumstances merely ruins what otherwise is probably a healthy relationship. 

When mistreatment causes a rose to droop, ressurect it by being calm. Clarify the person’s intentions, take some time to listen to his frustration, and offer a little empathy. The rose will lift its head again.

Enjoy these free verses.

Drooping rose

Red colour fades

Drained by rigour

Unnecessary

Drooping rose

Can stand again

In waters pristine

Tranquil

Drooping rose

Rises when

It knows why

Its lovely petals

Wilt 

Rose retains

Red blush

With water kind

On its roots

Rose keeps

Red hue 
With heed paid 

to misshappen

form.