No more tears or tangles. She's learned to tame, even love her wild hair. Unwinding each coil, she bathes in lukewarm water, dries her tresses with her softest #towel. Feeds each serpentine strand an egg, a baby mouse, then falls asleep in the sun, sweet hissing in her ear. #vss365

Slimy strands clog the shower drain. Furry tumbleweeds roll and knot around her toes. He shaves twice a day. Still, his beard grows. His ma used her hair to escape a tower, but she has a better idea. Wash, #comb, spin, knit. Her designer "cashmere" sweaters buy them an entire castle. #vss365

She keeps her heart in a #matchbox, waits for a spark. A high school crush flickers, dies. Her first love burns too hot, singeing her. Her college boyfriend throws off weak light and no warmth. Date after date, flame after flame. One match left. “Happy Birthday. What did you wish for?” You. #vss365

With my job, I can work from anywhere. But I try to visit the office once a month, so they don't forget me. "Where's Rob?" "He works #remote now." "Y'all I'm right here for the all hands meeting—hey, I want a donut too. Hello?" On mute. Forever. I can work from anywhere. Even the afterlife. #vss365

I toss Jack's memoir into the fire. Giant Killer? More like Giant Fraud. Invasive bean stalks crowd our sky, kill our crops of storms; our brawny children starve and shrink. But his latest #shrewd scheme will not stand. Data centers in the clouds? Call Zephyrus. Let him blow them all away. #vss365

Work, school, soccer, ballet, meals to cook, tantrums to stop, hurts to kiss. Outside, her garden lies #fallow. She dips her pruned hands back in the dishwater. No time to grow now. One day, when the work is over, the children are gone and the world has forgotten her, then she'll bloom. #vss365

She loves her new family. But there are seven beds to make, seven sets of clothes to wash, seven dinners, seven lives to #toil over for seven days a week. "Late shift today," they say, off to the mines. Finally, a rest. A beggar woman calls, "Apples for sale!" Girl dinner, and then a nap. #vss365

The first time the world ended, work was #chaos. Customers cried, swore, stole milk, bread, booze. Why stop them? We'd be dead soon. False alarm. A second, a third, a tenth apocalypse. Frogs, flies, locusts. I price canned #fruit in the dark while others rise to heaven. Essential, I am. #vss365

Monthly reminder: Many people have a book in them, but it takes a special kind of freak to leave the Land of Laziness, cross the Plains of Procrastination and Insecurity Mountain, find the Blade of No One Made You Do This, and use it to cut your chest open and yank that book out.

Ain't nothing wrong with the market. I paid cash for my home last spring. Took five months to #tend it, three to make it livable. Sweat equity. Now I've got two more on the vine, titian beauties, ready for the fall. New home buyers want a fairy godmother, but you gotta carve out a living. #vss365

"No more experiments. You'll be normal, make new friends." Ma boarded up my basement lab, but she couldn't take away the endless #temptations of science. In bio lab, I stitch together frog guts and fetal pigs, shock my #creations to life, take over the school. See Ma? I made new friends. #vss365

"...and I said, we'll build our castle at the #summit, where I may survey my entire kingdom." Father loves this story, but I'm so lonely at the top. At night, I #descend the throne, guitar in hand. Meet my ogre bandmates at the pub to play Britney covers for roaring crowds. A pop princess. #vss365

I heard it only once. A soft #cadence, a sharp hook. La, la-la, laaaa, lala. I hum. I cannot stop. Brain scans reveal the earwyrm curling round and round, growing fat on my gray matter. Music starves out speech, motion, breath. I waste away, singing my funeral dirge. La, la-la, laaaa, lala. #vss365

I hear men's whispers. "Pretty young thing, not too much upstairs. But you don't need your wife to think, do ya?" I don't think as I #ascend the attic steps, #shift the bookcase. Not much upstairs, except an eight-legged hunger. I toss Suitor No. 9 into the widow's web and keep his diamond. #vss365

After the bank takes the farm, I watch the sky until the cyclone comes and ride the #tailwind. I follow the sallow #road, past dead witches and withered fields. Greed has feasted here too. But I find my friends: a tin knight, a lion, a straw man. We make our own magic, follow new rainbows. #vss365

Good on Dave Eggers. If OpenAI employees expected any author/artist/creator to fawn over them, they've clearly been spending too much time on ChatGPT.

Meg Elison@megelison.bsky.social · last mo.

Would have paid good money to be in this room.

The other dancers pirouette like swans around an ostrich as I #turn, flail, fall. Madame raps her cane. "Oh, Marie. Sit down." I will learn. That night, I drive an axle through my silk shoes, sinew and bone into the dance floor. Find my #balance on bloody toes—and spin! Finally, a ballerina. #vss365

I sprint outside as it cascades down, empty jar aloft. When my mom and I left our hot homeland, I'd promised to send my cousins a snowflake. #vss365 #vss #sprint

It isn't fair. No matter how hard I pump my legs, swing higher, build #momentum and leap to heaven—I'll never fly like my brother. He floats above my head. "Can't catch me!" "Who are you talking to, Amy?" "No one." I wave at his ghost and #sprint to dinner. We'll play again tomorrow. #vss365

Breathe out. Breathe in no more. Time to #depart. But my new wings are weak. A fierce #headwind slams me to earth. Then deeper. No! I'm a good person, please, I tried— The wind tumbles me sideways, down the hall, ass over elbows, into a tiny, moist body. "It's a girl!" Time to start over. #vss365

"Big crowd out there." I yank the curtains closed. "The audience is—" "You recall I said to #conquer your fear of public speaking, imagine everyone naked? Now you don't have to! Nudists—very welcoming. You should lose your clothes too. Don't want it to be awkward." Time to get a new agent. #vss365

The day she fell in love, the world turned lavender. Pink had been for crushes, at least for her. This was how she knew it was real, the #unabashed purple sunset, lilac and rose in the air. This color soothed and titillated her. She felt it in her chest. Meant to last. #vss365

Pinkie Pie's Rimshot Drum Solo

ALT: Pinkie Pie's Rimshot Drum Solo

static.klipy.com

Mo Hayes 📚📖👩🏼‍💻@mohayeswriter.bsky.social · last mo.

‘Hey, Doc, sorry to disturb your break, but we got a #patient in the waiting room with an unusual problem.’ ‘What seems to be the issue?’ ‘He claims to be invisible.’ ‘Hmmm. That’s unusual, for sure.’ ‘What should I tell him?’ ‘Tell him we can’t see him right now.’ #vss365

We just clicked. Science, not #unabashed lust, drew us together. Copper and iron, a flip of a switch. I couldn't avoid the #magnetism of his #embrace any more than I could stop gravity. But love is a #patient swindler. The experiment over, electricity gone, I still missed his hand in mine. #vss365

Me: I don't know if I feel like writing today. DA POPE:

She sweeps up the petals, pours the flat champagne down the sink. In a week, he'll ask a new woman, "Will you have this #rose?" and stupidly, she'll say yes. He must have a dozen wives now, locked in the lap of luxury while she scrubs toilets. Only the governess said no and ran. Smart girl. #vss365

"At the bottom of the ball pit, there's a door to hell." Of course, hell is in a FunZone. Bright lights, no windows, the musty odors of dirty socks, cheap pizza and pee. #Frolicking children scream just like demons. Dante dives into the clicking plastic orbs, hand and heart seeking Beatrice. #vss365

#Revealing a coin in her ear used to make her giggle. Scarves from a sleeve, a rabbit in a hat—"How did you do that?" Nothing impresses her now. All tricks earn a snort of #defiance. "I'm not a kid anymore." One day, he'll disappear and she'll wish she learned the magic to bring him back. #vss365