Noah = meh.

Description: a blue square that says: “To Noah. I wish you had kissed me but I am happier now that it’s over than I ever was when we were together.” #unsentproject

Today’s writing prompt/art prompt comes from a street sticker that was a part of Artprize (an art competition in Grand Rapids, MI). This was a part of the #unsentproject. I hope this prompt helps you out today.

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Noah wasn’t a bad guy, but he embodied the word “meh.” He had style—that 1950s greaser look. People dreamed of taking up the space under his leather-clad arm and riding in his brand new corvette.

Jazz fluttered like a moth crashing into Noah’s dim light. If you asked Noah, he would say they were “just having fun,” but it’d been eleven months and eighteen days- Jazz counted. Jazz lived for aesthetics and perfectly curated Instagram grids, and Noah fit the bill. But they knew when to put the phone away; Noah didn’t. They cried when they watched Once at the Cadillac Palace Theater; Noah said he “didn’t get it.” And Jazz leaned in for a kiss at Niagra Falls, but Noah was too busy complaining about getting wet in the spray.

Noah and Jazz had traveled all across the country together, but they were at odds in everything they did. And when Noah didn’t kiss them, they knew it was going nowhere. And nowhere wasn’t where they wanted to go.

It wasn’t worth a confrontation. They wrote a note and left it on the driver’s side seat of the red Corvette. Years later, when Jazz thought about it, they wished they hadn’t exposed their heart through the words. Noah would say, “huh,” toss it in the trash, and find another partner to lug around.

Without him, Jazz didn’t have the means to travel or eat lavish meals. They wanted that back; they wished Noah had just kissed them, and it would have all been okay. But now, Jazz sings karaoke on Tuesday nights, hoots when hockey players brawl, and spends hours in museums soaking up every bit of information. Jazz had been confused; they weren’t a moth. They were a monarch who needed space to fly.

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Today’s didn’t come out as good as yesterday, but it was still something that got me writing. I’ve learned lately that not everything needs to be good writing; there just needs to be writing.

Thank you for reading, and wishing you luck in your creative endeavors.

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Cigarette Ashes In All Your Spiderwebs

Writing prompt/ art prompt! Please, take this bit of inspiration along with me. Write or draw whatever comes to mind.

Here’s mine:
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“Why are you crying over a bug?”

“Spider.” She corrected, the years scorching at the corners of her eyes. “American Grass Spider, actually.”

And that a-hole had the audacity to laugh. He enunciated each syllable – huh huh huh. But the woman focused on the spider trying to eat the cigarette butt that had been carelessly clicked into its blanketed funnel web. The spider dragged the bounty into the eye of its home and searched for the nutrition it would not find.

“I always forget you’re a bug freak,” he winked, but unlike a year ago, she did not smile.

She debated stepping in and trying to save the spider from the carcinogenic heartbreak. All she had to do was remove it from the funnel. But trying to save it might be damaging for both of them.

Audibly, he sucked in the air between his teeth. The silence weighed down the brisk 11 pm air. “How about we go home and watch that movie you’ve been nerding over?”

She didn’t look up at him; she nodded toward the spider. As they walked home, the tears fell. He didn’t notice.

She logged into Netflix; he’d called asleep before she even pressed play.

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I found this graffiti year ago and always thought it was poetically beautiful. It’s been in my mind for years, but I’d never done anything with that inspiration. Isn’t that just how it is? So much wasted creativity.

I hope today, you’re able to use this as inspiration. I hope you create something. Please let me know if this prompt sparked something in you.