The Metaphor Café

What’s a promise you made to yourself that you’ve actually kept? I promised myselfthat no matter how many stormslearned my name,I would not become one.That disappointmentwould never be the languageI spoke to strangers.That grief,though welcome to stay awhile,would never be handedto someone else as an inheritance.I promised myselfto keep a small room inside my heartwhere wonder could survive,…

In response to Violet’s Literary Quotes Challenge Prompt: “I think women are foolish to pretend they are equal to men, they are far superior and always have been.”— William Golding https://wp.me/paraa7-3xC Few quotations are as deceptively dangerous as this one. Not because it insults women. Quite the opposite. It flatters them. History has taught us to recognize misogyny when it arrives…

In response to John Holton’s Weekly Writer’s Workshop Prompts Prompt: 5. What doesn’t exist, but should?6. What does exist, and shouldn’t? https://wp.me/p18YYd-hM7 Every so often, usually while searching for my car keys with the television remote in my hand, I am struck by the unsettling realization that humanity has been solving the wrong problems. We congratulate ourselves for decoding…

In response to Esther’s Can you tell a story in 77 words using the following words in it somewhere:COYOTELEMONADETHERAPISTBUBBLEWRAPMISSPELLVACUUMLYCRABACKSTROKE https://wp.me/p3vsTb-9ZJ My therapist prescribed bubblewrap instead of meditation. I misspell prescriptions anyway, so I obeyed enthusiastically. Wearing Lycra, clutching lemonade, I practiced backstroke across the living-room floor,…

In response to Esther’s Weekly Writing Prompt Prompt: Label https://wp.me/p3vsTb-9Zo Every household has one. Not a room, though some houses are ambitious enough to dedicate an entire attic to the concept, but a drawer. It slides open with mild resistance, as though embarrassed to reveal its contents: expired batteries that may yet have a future, three mysterious keys, half a roll of…

In response to Fandango’s Story Starter FSS #256 This week’s Story Starter teaser is: “It is so hot here,” he said, “it seems that people move like they’re wearing something heavier than their skin.” https://wp.me/pfZzxd-uWq “It is so hot here,” he said, “it seems that people move like they’re wearing something heavier than their skin.” At first, I smiled at the exaggeration. Heat has always…

In response to Ragtagdailyprompt RDP Thursday: Eject https://wp.me/p9YcOU-6nP I once met a gentleman whose entire job, for forty years, consisted of helping people leave. Not emotionally, but physically. He was an usher in an old cinema that stood on a corner where three bus routes, two gossip networks, and one persistent pigeon converged. His duties included showing patrons to their seats,…

On Iceland’s shore where blue ice gleams,A shard of silence splits the streamsWhere oceans freeze in time’s embrace,And clouds drift low in sky’s deep grace. Water whispers every stageA vapor, drop, then frozen cage.It dances light, then stills as stone,Yet all the while, remains its own. The atom spins, unseen, yet known,In steam or frost, […]The Spectrum of Being

Whilst Underwater In response to Violet’s Literary Quotes Challenge from November 2025. I couldn’t resist responding when this challenge popped up while I was browsing. “To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.” – Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling. If you are inspired by this line- and would like to use it in your own creation, please do The first…

In response to John Holton’s Weekly Writer’s Workshop Prompts July 23, 2026 https://wp.me/p18YYd-hM7 Here are this week’s prompts:Write a post inspied by the word obituary.Write a post in exactly ten (10) sentences.If each person had a warning label, what would yours say?What’s something that you never seem to get tired of doing?What doesn’t exist, but should?What does exist, and…

What strategies do you use to maintain your health and well-being? Let’s be honest, a large portion of sleep is just your brain trying to fight its own private cage match of midnight demons. And then you wake up, stretch, yawn, sip your herbal tea, and BAM! There’s the outside world. With its own set […] Trot-Trauma

In response to The Sunday Whirl Wordle #766 https://wp.me/p1CKcK-10v Prompt: home world denied bees pleas forgotten folklore wonder strum fallow sigh sky My home has long since stopped pretending to be part of the civilized world. It began the day the bees arrived. Not one or two polite bees minding their own business. No. An entire buzzing committee moved into my garden and promptly denied…

In response to Di’s Share Your World https://wp.me/p3RSgb-xgf As always an optional gratitude section is included at the end. Here are this week’s questions and my answers. 1. Did you ever keep a diary? No diaries as such. Instead, I have a small army of notebooks that perform diary duties. Most start with great enthusiasm, survive for about few days, and then retire gracefully, leaving…

What is the best purchase you have ever made? Ask people about the best purchase they ever made and the answers are usually impressive. A house, a car, a dream vacation. An investment that multiplied in value. Occasionally someone will mention an air fryer with the reverence normally reserved for national heroes. My answer is far less glamorous.The best purchase I ever made was a notebook. Not…

(By Our Rural Correspondent) In response to Violet’s Literary Quotes Challenge Prompt:  The literary quote I have chosen for this week is: “The people cannot be changed until the outcasts are restored.” ― Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose. https://wp.me/paraa7-3wH When I arrived at the farm, the scarecrow was standing exactly where every scarecrow stands: alone. It struck me that “standing…

In response to Ragtagdailyprompt RDP Wednesday: Leafy https://wp.me/p9YcOU-6v8 The first person to tell me that leaves were edible was my grandmother, although she did so with the weary expression of someone correcting an obvious misunderstanding. “You’ve been eating leaves all your life,” she said, plucking a sprig of coriander from the kitchen windowsill. “You just don’t call them leaves…

In response to GirlieontheEdge’s Sunday’s Six Sentence Story https://wp.me/pFebB-8Bu Prompt: Pinch My grandmother has always expressed affection by pinching cheeks, a habit that was adorable when I was five and considerably less charming now that I pay taxes. At a family gathering she spotted me from across the room and approached with the determination of a heat seeking missile. Before I…