As our steps echoed in the #citadel's hallway, my visitor said, "So you didn't depose him for money?"
"Nope."
"Power?"
"Nope."
"Surely not... public adulation?"
I halted with a chuckle. "We bureaucrats like to work in the shadows."
"So, why?"
I flung open the library door. "His book collection!"
#mastodon #citadel #writing #scifi #fiction #mastoprompt
I remember writing something like this a few years ago. The cast were similar to those in my shitty scifi love story thing... but they landed on this snow covered planet.
The planet was huge, completely snow covered and long ago there was this large military spaceport. Just rows of hangers and barracks all delicately built into this mountain range.
Eventually it was left but not forgotten and repurposed into this hub of community.
The loch at the dyke
felt like our secret bastion
hidden nude swimming
#dailyhaikuprompt
#pond
#MastoPrompt
#citadel
#haiku
#senryu
#poetry
#SmallPoems
#writing
#photography
@dailyhaikuprompt
@stevencudahy
Het Wiel (The Wheel) - Aobram
A pond behind the river dyke, created by a dyke breakthrough of the river. The restored dyke was later built around it. Then more hidden between shrubs and trees, nowadays part of a nature reserve.
(She ALT for more explanation on the haiku)
Stormy Weather (#TimeTravelingGhost Side Story)
#Wss366 #Blues / #BillieHolidaysBirthday #MastoPrompt Citadel #TimeTravelAuthors How seriously do the characters take time travel
I watched my time-traveling friends leave. It was the second time spirits had visited me. First, a visitation by my mother, and now I’d met myself accompanied by a strange, abrasive woman. They were a serious pair. If only they had shared the results of my experiments. There was information they were withholding, as ominous as Erebus’s silent #citadel.
“So, what do you think, Rindy?” I asked the papillon plushie sitting in the guest chair. My visitors had dislodged its green St. Patrick’s Day hat. I straightened it and then gave Patroclus some more rat food. While I was at it, I poured myself a second drink.
“Alexa, play some Billie Holiday. Something soft but not too sad.”
“Carelessly,” came on.
I turned the picture on the desk toward me. Ms. Sarah Lockwell smiled back. I wondered what would happen if I traveled back in time and tried to make things work with her. She was already cheating on me by the time we traveled to Ireland, so probably not much. I would just relive those desperate times again, wallowing in self-loathing while desperately refusing to give up on someone who had tossed me aside. I would have been okay with sharing her, but she didn’t want that. Nor was she brave enough to tell me to get lost, just as I hadn’t had the self-respect to give up.
“All of Me” came on and I sang along. “You took the best, why not take the rest?”
The last of my drink burned as I swallowed it in one gulp, and I poured a third.
“Sigh, guess this is it,” I said. My visitors hadn’t been very informative, but I could read between the lines. “Stormy Weather,” I announced to Rindy and Patroclus.
Alexa switched the music to that track.
I picked up the silly red sunglasses I, the future me, had left behind, opened the middle drawer, and dropped them on top of my copy of the Mad Arab’s book.
1937 HITS ARCHIVE: Carelessly - Teddy Wilson (Billie Holiday, vocal)
capturing lost dreams
alone in a citadel
confused without guilt
#Haiku #Poetry #Writing #WritingCommunity #PoetryCommunity
#MastoPrompt
#Citadel
@stevencudahy
The #MastoPrompt for Tuesday 7 April 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
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