#7

"Jackson, it is your turn to let the dog out." Riley told his brother.
"No, I did it last time!" The brother detested.
Now if you didn't know this is a photo prompt, and you didn't see the picture of the two 80 year old men sleeping in the same room, you would probably think that this story was about two little kids. Well you thought wrong. Read more »

Life gave me everything I wanted &
everything I needed &
the strength to develop & God
told me
it was for the children.

How long is too long?
When you’re lulling out on the streets &
you realize that in this day & age,
it seems innocuous
‘cuz that’s what everyone else is doing too.
& they try their hardest
because
it’s for the children.

I spent years with my husband &
his unconditional love.
& that love spread us apart,
because he needed to earn
for the children.

He left.
He left with the other husbands
& the brothers
& the sons Read more »

yiruma - love hurts.mp3

Background music is the piano piece Love Hurts by Yiruma

I remember the day of passing the border.
of not knowing what lay ahead of my family,
and of having to cut through the bullets
wishing to never return,
and then the screaming,
the screaming of my past child's name-
calling desperately to child and husband,
through the rising dust and heat,
the stones that flew and skidded-
scratching and bleeding.
and then I remember
somehow hearing the soundless footsteps,
the final stop of two hearts,

thompson_water_06_MSTR.mp3

Below is one of documentary photographer Dorothea Lange's most famous photos, Migrant Mother, taken in 1936 in Nipomo, CA., during the Great Depression. California was overrun by impoverished families fleeing the "Dust Bole" where drought had forced closure of thousands upon thousands of farms.

Dorothea's notes: "Mother of seven children. Age thirty-two. Destitute in pea pickers' camp ... because of failure of the early pea crop. These people had just sold their tires to buy food."

The mother was later identified as Florence Owens Thompson. She died in 1983 at the age of 80. The podcast is an excerpt of an interview later in her life. The photo of her in 1978 is by Tim Benson of the Modesto Bee.

Use the photo and interview information to create a new character and write about the moment of the photo, describing the setting, sounds, details, what was going through your character's head. Choose the genre photo prompt (also the link to read earlier prompts and responses) and use the keyword: #7

Read more »