PHOTO PROMPT © Dale Rogerson
“What do you think, Dad?” Liz proudly showed off her university senior art project resting in a dorm courtyard.
“I’m not sure what to think,” Mike said. “What is it?”
“It’s symbolic of the constraints placed on reality and the illusion that if we were released from our cage, that we would be anything more than inert material.”
“Seems a little dark, Liz,” said Mike scratching his chin.
“We live in a dark world, Dad.”
“But why so grim? You’ve got your whole life ahead of you.”
“Dad, you grew up in a world of hope. That world is gone.”
It’s Wednesday and once again time to participate in Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ 16 May 2025 edition of Friday Fictioneers. The idea is to use the image above as a prompt for crafting a poem or short story no more than 100 words long. My word count is exactly 100.
When I saw Roger’s photo, I was stumped. I did a Google image search and came up with a few responses, but in French, which didn’t help me. You can find them on Flickr HERE and HERE.
Since these things at least suggested they were art forms, I went with that. I admit to not understanding modern art including the Times Square Statue that’s been all over the news lately.
I know that my view of the past is colored with nostalgia, but in my late teens and early twenties, I remember having a more optimistic view of the future. Today, with a certain individual in the White House, modern youth are crying nothing but doom and gloom. Maybe the world I grew up in is dead. More’s the pity.
Cover art for “Dames, Derringers and Detectives: Moggie Noir”
To read other stories based on the prompt, visit inlinkz.
My crime noir short story “Last Wish of a Dead Man” is now available in the Raconteur Press anthology Dames, Derringers and Detectives: Moggie Noir. The story requirements included a hard-boiled detective, a murder, and especially a cat. The third in my “Margie Potter: Haunted Detective” series made the cut.
Also, my horror short story “Haunting Chloe” is now available in the ghost story anthology Haunted Places (universal link) by Blackbird Publishing. Pick up a copy of each, give them a read, and don’t forget to leave honest reviews at Amazon and Goodreads.
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Very true. As Yeats says, “the best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity”
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What a sad reality. But seemingly accurate.
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All the gloom and doom is an artificial construct fomented by socialist dialectic dichotomy. The future reality that will be produced by optimists who pursue the American motto “E Pluribus Unam” will be much more hopeful; and the youths who have been misled for most of their lives so far are beginning to realize it and think individually rather than follow Orwellian groupthink. Consequently the message implied by the box or cage of rocking rocks may come to be interpreted altogether differently. Even imprisoned rocks may be released from the movement they were forced together to experience by some outsider’s hand.
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Liz might be spending too much time with the society of “doom and gloom”. Then again, as symbolic we are all held in a cage of subtle control from the society we accept.
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The further implication is that we don’t stop being rocks (inert material) once we’re freed, we only lose our context. To extend that further, once freed from an externally imposed context, we have to learn to create our own. Like it said in the 1999 movie “The Matrix…”
Morpheus: “The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you’re inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.”
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So true.
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At least she is expressing herself. There is power in that and hope for change. Creative take, James!
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Thanks, Brenda.
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Seems I’ve been rebaptised 😉 This piece of art is the park of the first railroad to go through Montreal, in the Little Burgundy district.
That said, I love your take on the photo 🙂 Art is subjective and often a representation of how the artist views life.
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I’d love to have written something that more directly addressed the piece, but I couldn’t find specific data so I had to make something up. Yes, once a piece of art is released to the public, they can interpret it as anything their personality desires.
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I know. Information was scarce! I think you did well.
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Dear James,
Art is definitely subjective. I personally like Liz’s take thought dark.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Oh, I so enjoyed your take on the prompt and the generational view. It does seem that times are dark for the moment. Let’s look forward to a brighter side. Well done!
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Thanks, Alicia.
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Wow! What an interpretation of the photo and the world! The attempt of the father to understand is great!
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Thanks, Clare.
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It’s amazing to me how different all our stories are! Yours certainly delves into life and philosophy. Lots to ponder.
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That’s what I like about these photo challenges, Linda. The diversity of interpretation of the images.
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I like to think that we still live in a world of hope but it’s taking more and more effort to continue believing that. Nice take on the prompt and congratulations on the inclusion of Last Wish of a Dead Man” in the anthology!
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Thanks, Michael. If you like mysteries and cats, give the anthology a read.
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It breaks my heart reading about young people who have given up.
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Mine, too. It’s as if they imagine the current political and social situation to be the only one we’ll ever have from now on.
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