PHOTO PROMPT © Lisa Fox

Once I was straight and tall, like an oak tree, like a stone spire. But time has a way with things and with people and I started getting smaller.

It’s okay really. This happens to all of us. That’s why we have children and grandchildren. As we grow smaller, they get bigger. Hopefully, they’ll even become better versions of ourselves but there are no guarantees.

In a way, it’s like what John said about Jesus in the Bible. I must decrease so he can increase. Age has shown me that, too though I wish I would have learned it sooner.

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

© James Pyles

I must admit the photo wasn’t inspiring, at least literally. Another knick knack on the shelf, another minor display, hardly anything (for me at least) to base something dramatic on.

Then I looked at the nesting cups as if it were a single image shrinking over time. That gave me my hook. Still not terribly dramatic and the hook at the end isn’t much, but I haven’t had that much sleep and the coffee isn’t doing it’s job.

To read other tales based on the prompt or to contribute one of your own, visit inlinkz.

My YA science fiction novel A Wobblegong And His Boy is on sale for the month of August in honor of Back to School so it’s a great time to buy a copy for the kid in your life who loves adventure (or the kid at heart). Don’t forget to leave an honest review at Amazon and Goodreads.

My new “Tom Corbett, Space Cadet” short story “A Monolith in the Regolith” is now featured in the anthology Tom Corbett, Space Cadet: An Original Short Story Anthology.

Happy Wednesday.