Writing Challenge

The Emotionally Frustrated Artist

Or, the day Trudy blew the marina sky high

Stan was an Emotionally Frustrated Artist That much was never in doubt What is strange about this story Is the manner in which Stan found out

About the leaking gas line on his boat That led to his ex-wife’s demise When Stan heard the news It was really quite a surprise

Stan’s ex-wife Trudy had insisted That the boat was half hers by law Maybe that was why she was down at the marina that day Last seen carrying a hacksaw

Maybe it was her greed Or her over-inflated capacity for spite That made her decide to take action And march down there in broad daylight

Trudy had always been a bright girl Many marvelled at her wit But when Stan heard that she blew herself up in the boat He just had to giggle a little bit

Apparently, she wasn’t that smart Whistled Stanley to himself Not sharp enough to see that can of benzene Wedged carefully out of sight beneath the shelf

The explosion was quite monumental Or so everyone that witnessed it said The fire shot straight into the sky And across the marina, it spread

The firefighters took many hours to contain it The heat and flames scorching so many boats Surely each and every one of them Would at least need a touch up to their paint coats

And that is what made Stan so happy On this notorious and fateful day While on one hand, he would miss his boat Somehow, he knew he would be okay

For Stan was a painter you see An artist at his trade He painted the most beautiful boat hulls And he only took orders already pre-paid

So, by the time Stanley got to the marina Customers were lining up by the docks A queue of impatient boat owners Now stood where just hours ago it had been a tinderbox

For summer was upon them And no respectable boat owner wanted to be without their craft They would all need their hulls repainted And Stan’s bank account would no longer be in overdraft

Oh, it was a day of mixed feelings For our emotionally frustrated artist, Stan For killing his ex-wife really hadn’t been A part of his elaborate plan

The benzene you see Wasn’t to set the boats ablaze Rather Stan had planned to row about the marina Using the chemical to carefully remove paint glaze

Undercover of nightfall Stan could row between the slips Stripping paint off the most expensive boats’ hulls He never intended an apocalypse

But here we are, thought Stan Dealing with the circumstances one paint job at a time It would probably be many weeks Before he found any free time

He didn’t dislike Trudy really But he had to admit that he did sort of hate How she was always so impatient She just couldn’t wait

So, now Stan is left torn An emotionally frustrated artist for sure But at least now he would have enough money to buy his own boat And he had to admit that had great allure

For instead of splitting his assets with Trudy The boat would be all his, alone to keep Stan was sad about how it happened But you might say that he was happy enough to weep

This poem is in response to two writing challenges really. One of the challenges was issued informally on Slack as simply a writing suggestion by Earnest Painter. He said what about, “An Emotionally Frustrated Artist”?

That sounded like a reasonable enough prompt to me, so I put it on my list of daily updates about challenges, and a handy tip, etc.

Then B. A. Cumberlidge. came up with a two-part challenge. Write a story, any story. Post it on his publication. Then make an associated video.

I feel that Brian’s angle is mostly to push folks towards the ILLUMINATION YouTube channel, so the written story part wasn’t necessarily the major focus. Anyway, long story short, I decided to use Earnie’s prompt to write Brian’s story. Then I will complete a video to round out that challenge, listed here:

So, here we are.

I hope you enjoyed the Stan and Trudy saga, I bet the back story is a doozy. Maybe I can tackle that someday. But for now, I hope it brings a smile. Thanks for reading!

I am going to pass on both Earnie’s prompt and Brian’s challenge to a few folks. Take on one, both, parts of some. Whatever strikes your fancy. It definitely doesn’t have to be a poem; I wouldn’t mind hearing about the non-fiction version of an emotionally frustrated artist.

So how about it? P.G. Barnett, Sherry McGuinn, Tree Langdon ♾️, Desiree Driesenaar, Rasheed Hooda, Joe Luca, Arthur G. Hernandez, Charles Roast, Holly Jahangiri, Britni Pepper and Infiniti

If you like this, you might like some of my other recent writing:

A recent poetic response to a prior challenge:

And another more spontaneous poem:

Timothy Key spent over 26 years in the fire service as a firefighter/paramedic and various fire chief management roles. He firmly believes that bad managers destroy more than companies, and good managers create a passion that is contagious. Compassion, grace and gratitude drive the world; or at least they should. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and join the mail list.