PHOTO PROMPT © David Stewart

I’m dying.

I’ve been riding this train to visit my children, well now, my grandchildren, for over thirty years. My dear wife Jeannie passed away six years ago, bless her. I’m the only one left of my generation and the docs say the cancer is spreading.

It’s spreading across our land as well. That old shantytown used to be a neighborhood sheltering good working men, families, children playing ball in the street.

The world’s falling apart and it doesn’t matter which party promises to bring prosperity. We are no longer represented. I pray I die before the bloodshed of revolution.

It’s Wednesday and time again to participate in Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ 14 February 2025 edition of Friday Fictioneers. The idea is to use the image above as the prompt for crafting a poem or short story no more than 100 words long. My word count is exactly 100.

I keep seeing all kinds of messages in news and social media about how bad the current administration is and how, if the other person had been elected, everything would be good and right.

While the presentation of each major American political party looks dramatically different, in the end, they’re both driven more by what the party wants (money, power) than what the people want. They just tell the people (or some of them) what they want to hear based on the marketing produced by political, social, and commercial institutions which want money and power.

The old man in my story sees only one solution: revolution. Unfortunately, depending on who starts it, it could be called rioting, or insurrection, or a bunch of other things other than the will of the people who have lost control of the governance of our nation.

Cover image for the anthology, “Shoot the Devil 3: Militia of Martyrs.”

I hope this is just fiction (yes, I know Friday is Valentine’s Day, but the muse wasn’t interested in that).

To read more stories based on the prompt, visit inllnkz.

I recently participated in a podcast promoting the anthology Shoot the Devil 3: Martyr’s Militia. My short story “The Book of Names” appears in its pages.

You can watch the ninety minute conversation between me and the other authors on https://www.youtube.com/live/qIGZAddSpk4, and if so, please leave a like and if you are so inclined, subscribe.

A number of my stories are due to appear (more or less) soon and I’ll keep you posted. Yes, I’m still writing.