The Earnest Egg -

October 31, 2025

Lego Supplication

Prompt: Imagine one of your toys is disgruntled about the ways you’ve played with it. Write a letter from that toy to you. My kids had created a lego stop motion in which they used the drunken pirate lego head on a lego lady body. —- Most Honorable and Gracious Majesty, All Powerful and Beneficent…

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April 1, 2022

Ticonderoga Lament

Prompt: You are a pencil without an eraser…. ——– Ticonderoga Lament Alas! A wretched implement am I Who scratch black marks upon this barren leaf These smudgy tracks, they make me weep and sigh And graphite tracks are emblems of my grief. . Oh, that I could be crowned with rubber fair! A noble coronet…

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poem, sonnet
March 25, 2022

The Grapes and the Fox

Prompt: Rewrite a fable from an unusual perspective. Piece: We were a quarrelsome bunch, my siblings and I. We sat under the sun’s fierce rays and fought, prodding and nudging each other for a little more room. My siblings teased me mercilessly. I was the runt of the litter, slower to grow. My brothers and…

Stories
February 4, 2022

The Gilded Envelope

Prompt: One day you open the mailbox and find a heavy, gilded envelope. You break the thick golden wax seal bearing a fancy insignia and pull out an invitation…. Piece: I had never planned on this profession. Pilferer of packages. Looter of letters. Marauder of mail. Felon. I had loftier goals. I was a smart…

Stories
November 17, 2021

Wrong Number of Digits

Prompt: The US has run out of 10 digit phone numbers and is now issuing 15 digit numbers… Piece: A Bedtime Reminiscence… A little boy padded softly into his bedroom, cozily attired in his red, fuzzy, footed, MAGA pajamas. He yawned as he snuggled under his star spangled comforter. “Grandpa, could you tell me a…

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November 10, 2021

Book Ban

Prompt: Books have been banned… Piece: The shadowy fingers of dark had just crept over the horizon. In the distance, the stooped and furtive forms of three portly men could be seen, silhouetted against the lingering blush of daylight. They seemed to melt out of the trunks of the sheltering trees as they dashed across…

Stories
November 3, 2021

Big News

Prompt: Take an ordinary activity in your life (brushing your teeth, making your bed, cleaning the bathroom, etc) and describe it as a broadcaster would a BIG NEWS FLASH. Write a newspaper article describing the event as BIG NEWS! Piece: Shocking Revelation – Wasteful Garden City Tooth-brusher Residents of the usually scenic and peaceful Rose…

Stories