CLEARING BRAIN CLUTTER
(Humorosity #35)
By Honeydew Zubari
One positive result from the torture of moving is sorting piles of stuff that haven’t done anything but lurk in corners of my closets gathering dust, into smaller piles labeled “trash” and “give away.” The things I finally pack are (mostly) the things I use daily or at least trip over once a year.
Recently as I plowed through my linen closet, I came across a box of lightbulbs dating back to some prehistoric era and the little blinker in my head went “ping, ping.” (Sound effects.) Hey, I thought in a rather inspired way, why not do the same sort of organizing in my brain?
Lately I’ve noticed my memory slowing down, recall gone foggy, giant dust bunnies roaming amok across the landscape of my mind. Time to hold the vacuum cleaner hose to my ear and suck all that out, to use a popular analogy. Sharpen the picture; eliminate the “snow.”
So here are bits and pieces that have been drifting around too long, yours for the taking, should you so desire. One woman’s gray matter trash is another person’s prompt for a brilliant bit of writing. Or whatever.
*The bloody hand in a trunk in the attic—this is from a murder mystery that went nowhere but won’t leave me alone.
*”Damn the niceties, whack him with an oar!”—no clue.
*Pig, piggy, piglet, pork pie—for some sort of poem, I think.
*slugs abed—from either a Jane Austin or Shakespeare phase.
*lazy daisy chain smoking gun control-top pantyhose—word games from boredom.
*penguins & polar bears—this actually turned into a story, but see what you can do with it.
*the invincible keyboard—I wish I had one.
*trollops and spices--??
*juicy eyeballs-fell asleep with a grape in my mouth, what a nightmare!
*the squid squeezer
There are a couple bags of clichés sitting on the curb by the trash cans for pick-up tomorrow, should you feel like dropping by and scavenging through them. Some are still usable; all they need is a hammering out of dents and a coat of paint. Maybe glued-on sequins or lace to perk them up again.
The box of well-worn quotes is getting tucked back under the eaves. Sentimentality rules.
Should you do spring cleaning, drop me a line. I have free space now to store a whole load of fresh ideas, allowing them to ripen. (Translation: act as dust catchers for a decade or so.)
©2006, Susan “NOT an airhead” Scott
