Writing Prompt

Marla woke up bright eyed and with a smile that she could feel before she was fully awake. “I am 45 years old today!” She looks in the mirror and wonders when her crows feet will begin to extend into her hairline. She’s been dreaming of the day she will be full of wrinkles and have grey hair. Her first thought that morning: “What a blessing it is to be old.”

To be young meant you were gullible a...

In the middle me ages time was determined by candles with nails in them.

As they slept the candles would melt the nails would slip and make a huge tang of a noise in the metallic plate.

The chime would vibrate echo the room counting to exactly 7 chimes 7 hours of sleep and then awake...

_We have always been told that we ought to live one day at a time. Enjoy the precious time we have, stop and smell all the flowers and take in the beautiful scenery of our planet. Buthow am I supposed to take one day at a time, when time is so elusive? In my culture, it is customary for a young girl like me to partake in what is known as The Wave. This happens the very moment we turn 18. Suddenly ...

Time

Refine

Sublime

Define

Day

Say

Sway

Way

Night

Bright

Sight

Delight...

We follow the moon.

We plan harvest around the harvest moon. The brighter the moon, the better the harvest.

We don’t celebrate normal holidays. Instead we celebrate solstices and eclipses, which are signs of good luck and fortune.

We plan our month, which is the cycle of the moon, around the moon phases.

For example, the take the day of rest on the new moon.

We have 360 days in our calendar becaus...

And lo, the bell did toll—over and over. Sometimes at the zenith of the sun, and other times, at the full moon. Sometimes on the dot of each hour, and other times, way off schedule.

And it didn’t matter when the bell rang. They gathered up their things as in a wild frenzy of terror, fearing the next ring, and ran for shelter anywhere the light of the sun was blocked, because when the bell rang, t...

Our hours are only two score long and so are our minutes. Each day is counted by when the sun sets and rises. A new day is when the sun rises, and vice versa.

Our calendar has four hundred days it instead of 365 days. Four is a very lucky number....

Zigzagging cars and one spandex-clad bicyclist with an apparent death wish, West Chester Pike was a snaking traffic jam. Frowning at his wife in the passenger seat, Jeff angrily drummed the steering wheel. Tammy applied eyeliner and pretended not to notice. His knee bounced as he prayed for a break from the traffic. The light above turned green but because of cars blocking the intersection no one ...

63,779 crosses

Rounded to 64

Squared to 8

A line through every section

A depth to each dimension

A graph divided

A birthmark constellation

A complex consummation

A section for vacation

Working in relation

With the rectangle

A corner pouring rain

Is the same corner

Soaked in shame

Burnt in flame

To turn the page

Is more the same

More different

The infinite, obtuse

Acute, geometric

...

In the land of Horologgia, the people had a peculiar relationship with time. Unlike the rest of the world, they didn’t measure time in minutes, hours, or days. Instead, they divided their lives into _Task Units_—small increments based entirely on how long it took to complete various mundane activities.

For instance, there was the “Boil Unit,” which measured time based on how long it took a kettle...