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Dascha Paylor 🇨🇦🍁🐻‍❄'s avatar

"Th Lure of the Underground": modern myth or urban legend? Perhaps we'll never know. More importantly, what is its mysterious connection to tube socks?

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Mark Starlin's avatar

🤣🤣🤣 I wish I would have thought of tube socks! Hillarious.

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Emily's avatar

Better than a donut! I love seeing your storytelling in these restricted formats.

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Mark Starlin's avatar

Thanks, Emily. Restrictions are creativity breeders.

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Emily's avatar

They really are! I'm thinking of entering a flash fiction writing contest and you are inspiring me a good story can be told within a limited word count!

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Mark Starlin's avatar

Do it!

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Jimmy Doom's avatar

I really like A Tight Situation, but I swear it would have been even better if you hadn't said " clown car". Because you nailed it without those words.

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Mark Starlin's avatar

Thanks, Jimmy. I appreciate your comments. But what is a joke without the punchline? Although I am sure most readers would have understood where I was going with this silly humor story, I like putting that final image in their heads. And I was under a 100-word limitation/requirement. So I need to end it.

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Jimmy Doom's avatar

I promise I understand the 100 word limit. Jester Jalopy might have been a nice alternative. Regardless, you're in a great literary place any time the worlds of clowns and carnivals/circuses are involved.

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Mark Starlin's avatar

Ah, you don't like the words "clown car." Alright. But that is the term used since the act began in the 1950s in the Cole Bros. Circus. So it is authentic for the period.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clown_car

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Jimmy Doom's avatar

You miss my point. You captured the essence of the clown car so well, that the exact words weren't necessary. The longest publicly performed single spoken word piece I've ever written is about 20 minutes. It is inspired by a photo of a clown masturbating. In it, very much on purpose, I describe the act of self pleasure repeatedly without using the M word.

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Mark Starlin's avatar

Okay. I got it now. Thanks. Sometimes you have to hammer several times to get an idea through my thick skull.

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Jack Herlocker's avatar

“You Said” is my favorite for today, Mark. Started as a photo riff, went to the heart.

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Mark Starlin's avatar

Thanks, Jack. I am not usually a fan of "rules" poetry, but I gave this one a try. It was actually a LitUp prompt that required the use of the image and the 55er format. And it had to be a story (not just poetry.) It was quite challenging. I am glad you enjoyed it.

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Bill Adler's avatar

The Lure Of The Underground is a fun, creative story. I enjoyed it a lot.

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Mark Starlin's avatar

Thanks, Bill. I went through a period where I wrote stories based on vintage posters. The artwork is so great. I had a good time doing those.

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Justin Deming's avatar

Fun and imaginative as always, Mark. Now I know the origins of the tube!

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Mark Starlin's avatar

I can guarantee that the tube story is 100% inaccurate. 🤣 Actually, some of it is true. The trains and it being a flop at first are true. But the rest is pure fiction (maybe.)

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Justin Deming's avatar

Haha! And to me that’s why the story is so enjoyable. It’s so outlandish that you just have to laugh. Thanks for the fun start to the day.

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