Zombie Flamingos

Welcome to my April 2026 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (A poem a day…maybe even with pictures), and of course, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, A is for Abstraction in Prose. 

Ok, so I am going to be playing hard and fast with these A to Z “rules” this time around because I am taking a 30 poems in 30 days course and only want to have to write one poem a day, not more. So today’s assignment was to describe “a universe” of some kind. I did so, in a prose format which created an abstract view of procrastination. Well, maybe better to say took the abstract concept of procrastination and tried to create an image of it. Anyway, Abstraction it is, in a very draft prose poem.

How Procrastination Came to Be

My universe of procrastination is carefully crafted from the finest bright green and red silken threads of worry and doubt, woven into cloth of the deep purples of distraction, overlaid with gilt of guilt, not the smooth lying guilt of not meeting commitments and promises, but the ridged rigid guilt of not caring, the guilt of not feeling guilty as you have been taught. This craft is deeply embedded in my soul, over 61 years of practice, fingers no longer bleed when pricked by the sharp needles trying to hold it all together, but now callused and hardened by cynicism at a world that once promised to change and be better, but somehow keeps turning back to those times we all thought were past us for good. All I can patch together, all I can control, is how I bring cloth and threads and gilt together in patterns that once represented hope and instead pulls me into an unreality of novellas and Netflix. Never finished, but after all these years, I can flip my silken cape over my shoulders as if I were a superhero, or wizard, or wizened crone (and I am all these things in my imagination, or is it a real world waiting for me to finally admit myself?) and huddle on the couch, eyes closed, covered in the vast emptiness I have created.

Thanks for visiting my 2026 A to Z Challenge – Letter A.

Welcome to the Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z 2026 Theme Reveal!

This is the 15th or 16th year of the challenge, I can’t rightly remember which, and I’ve been a participant since 2014.  Like last year, and every other year, I will be writing my posts on the fly!

Before I reveal my 2026 theme, here are themes from challenges past:

• 2014:  I blogged about our house, and the befores and afters of the renos we did and changes we made after buying it.
• 2015: I blogged about interesting places in Victoria (all close to home).
• 2016: I blogged about learning to use my DSLR
• 2017: I blogged about my ‘hood in Welcome to James Bay!
• 2018: I blogged about the wonderful world of wabi-sabi in photographs.
• 2019:  I blogged about A picture-story a day (in the life, so to speak)
• 2020: I blogged about female photographers
• 2021 I blogged Photos and Stories
• 2022 I blogged Photo editing apps!
• 2023 I blogged My life in first drafts!
• 2024 I blogged A poem a day (with a picture)!
• 2025 I blogged A poem a day (maybe with pictures, maybe not)

And this year I am  once again going completely rogue and flying by the seat of my pants with A to Z poem a day, remembering that April is Poetry Month too! I may or may not make an honest effort to go in order from A to Z this year, but I always find this challenge gives me some purpose for a month and just like last year, will keep my mind from insanely stressful workplace issues that for some reason continue – like Groundhog Day on steroids.

So, I will see you on April 1 for my first post!

This post approved by Elliot.