Welcome to Our First Flash Friday

We were so looking forward to a horror-infused story about the black cloud of ectoplasm that appears to be haunting this poor woman. (Who you gonna call? I ain’t afraid of no ghosts.) Alas, we will tuck this photo back into the blank journal from which it came, and lock both in the very bottom recess of our desk drawer, where it will be harder for the apparition to find us at night while we are sleeping.

The submission we did receive was just as haunting, but in a different way. When we saw it was written in limerick, we were expecting humor (in the bawdy variety). Ginny Brinkley brilliantly subverted that expectation—and hit us right in the feels.

Forever Friends

In Limerick

by Ginny Brinkley

 

How well I remember each face,

Betty Lou, Carol, Anne, Mary Grace.

We thought we were cool,

Going off to a school

In a new and more challenging place.

 

We adjusted to life in the dorm

Where staying up late was the norm—

Discussing our dates,

Speculating on mates,

Obeying the rules (in some form.)

 

World events clouded our days…

Vietnam, civil rights, JFK.

We got our degrees,

Our parents were pleased,

Then we all went our own separate ways.

 

Amazingly we stayed in touch,

Supporting each other so much,

Our worsts and our bests,

Full homes, empty nests—

Meeting up at reunions and such.

 

Looking back now I find I’m bereft,

Time has created a theft.

After so many years

I’m drowning in tears…

It seems I’m the only one left.

 

In my dreams I am back with those four,

Still wondering what life has in store.

Full of hope, never dread,

For what lies ahead—

Oh, to be twenty once more….

Ginny Brinkley is a versatile author who has published works in many different genres, and has been published by almost every possible method, from traditional to local hometown publisher. She began writing at an early age. Her first published work, in 1991, was a childbirth education manual entitled Your Child’s First Journey, which sold over 100,000 copies nationwide. She then co-owned a publishing company, Pink Inc! Publishing, which provided educational materials for pregnant teens. After that, she co-authored a sci-fi novel, EarthQuest, a Story of Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Red Meat, and more recently, her “non-autobiographical” (so she claims!) love story, Goddess—A Child of the Sixties, available from Amazon or from the publisher at goddessginnybrinkley.com. Her latest publication, Pandemericks, is a memoir, in limerick, of her life during the pandemic, which is also available on Amazon.

Each limerick in Pandemericks: Limericks Created During the Pandemic of 2020 is accompanied by personal photos, and Ginny has graciously allowed us to post a sample here:

Personally, we put Pandemericks right up there with Denise Duhamel’s book of poetry entitled Kinky, which we promise you is not a risky click—it’s a book comprised entirely of poems about Barbie. (Yes, that Barbie.) Both books are so ingenious and brilliant and funny. The kind of funny where you definitely should not read them while on public transit or in a hospital waiting room, because—if you are like us—your laughing like a loon is going to cause the people around you to nervously check for the nearest emergency exit.

So, Ginny—thank you for the wonderful submission, and please accept with our gratitude your illustrated copy of The Yearling, along with the $30 gift card of your choice. (We are adding Barnes & Noble as an option, in addition to Amazon or Book Gallery West, since a new store will be opening on SW Archer in 2024!)

If you have a found photo (pictures forgotten in a library book or a used book and rescued by you) or a piece of artwork you’d like to have used for a Flash Friday prompt, please send it along to us! We will be posting TWO images for January’s Flash Friday.

Until then, happy reading, happy writing, and well-wishes to all for a happy (spectre-free) holiday season!

* * * * *Edited to add on 1/26/24* * * * *

After Ginny Brinkley’s poem “Forever Friends” was posted here, her granddaughter—New York City based soprano and singer/songwriter Britt Hewitt—turned the poem into a song. Ginny said, “She surprised me with it on Christmas. I was sobbing. She did the whole thing herself—all the voices are her, and the piano, and she produced it. She is quite talented!”

We agree!

Listen to this beautiful song here.