Six Sentence Stories is a weekly writers’ challenge hosted by Denise at Girlie on the Edge blog.
Join us and take part in the form here. This week’s cue word is: Bowl
Atomic Mage Exclusive!!! Click to hear the author make an absolute fool of himself by narrating his words in the style of Arthur Shelby from Peaky Blinders, Ian McKellen, Family Guy and Queen Elizabeth!!!
At the bottom of the bowl was a bad bone rising, and upon its broad and osseous bulk was bled the broth of my bastard sins.
Bad to the bone, B-B-B-B-Bad, I broke my bread with brothers working it out and sisters doing it for themselves, and some goddamnmotherfuckingsonofabitch dropping broken glass in my bubbling stew.
I scraped the bowl with the silver spoon I was never born to hold – scrapeskreeeepscreeeeeel – curled leaves of black bark and soupy patina, linseed oil and the clinging-on-to-life lifeforms of woodworm and weevils, and all the evils sprinkled from a salt and pepper pot to season the bone which was bad to the bone.
B-B-B-B-Bad, I balked at the aroma of the bad bone rising, retch-a-bone, choke-a-bone, swallowed the soup whole then stuck a skinless finger down my throat and called out for my dead mama, as the thermometer told me 40° and rising – and my skin… all bruised and blistered to the thinnest of summer coats to drape about the shoulders of the big bad bone.
I was about to become extinct; behold, the brutal boulder breaking up the sky, blotting out the sun of my life to wipe me out in the blink of an eye, and skin me to my honeycomb matrix and bared teeth.
For a long while I marinated in dreams and reflections and minor regrets… then felt myself dropped dripping wet and aromatic into the bottom of a carved wooden feeding bowl – man, you’d better believe it when I say it’s like a burning hot crater in here, and all littered with the bones of dinosaurs.
The Bad Bone Rising poem by Ford 08 July 2021
The Bad Bone Rising image – dinosaur in a shopping mall photo by Ford.
The Atomic Mage 
That really needs to be read out loud… loudly! I love the feel of those words, like pebbles rolling over my tongue.
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Thanks, Chris. You’re right, it sounds awesome reading it aloud, loudly, just tried it! (In a not too bad Ian McKellen stylee then Arthur from Peaky Blinders, lol).
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We have to hear this!
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Thanks, Chris. Ask and ye shall receive!
(apologies in advance)
Last night I recorded a spoken word version and just added it to the post 🙂
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Holy shit damn, V. Potent, powerful.. concussive.
Love the “B” alliteration sprinkled throughout, seasons your piece perfectly. Funny, how words often insist on alliterating (I know, not a real word, but they do!).
Had me fooled. Was expecting you know who in music vid 😎
You’re forgiven for missing last week’s 6 – this more than makes up for it 😉
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Hi again, D. Some good folk in the comments were asking for a spoken word version of it, so last night I recorded one and just added it to the post, lol 🙂
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👏👏👏 👏👏 V! You thespian, you! Clearly you had a blast and it was just as fun listening 😎
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Glad you liked, D, thank you. Yep, was a blast, and can finally score it off the old writing ‘to do’ list 😎
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Thank you kindly, D 😊
Absolutely it should have been the excellent George T in the vid, however I needed something real jolly and jiggy but with end of the world lyrics, so Creedence won.
Ha, I missed last week coz ended up in little Hell, but at least I survived and brunged me back these special words for this week’s Six 😎😎😎
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Must have been a helluva decade, marked by sharp scatterings of summer dance hall music!
Truly a flowing, twisting prose poem of the highest quality.
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Thanks so much, Liz 😎
I recorded a fun spoken word version of it and just added it to the post 🙂
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Awesome. I was a dinosaur nut as a kid. Brought back happy playtime memories. Godzilla always ate the village.
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Thanks, UP. I too was a dinosaur nut as a kid. Those creatures (and Godzilla – awesome!) were excellent adventure fuel for young minds!
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Chris said to read it loud , you said Ian and Arthur… you know how I feel about listening to your words performed!
Though I must admit CCR is so fitting , I have to go with a more dark tone (tell us something new, they shouted to the Wizard).
So, it’s Nick Cave with the Red Right Hand /Flood remix.
The words fit like a glove! Even the goddamnsonofab…😎 And the sound of the anvil adds to, what Denise accurately described as concussive, quality of this SSS.👍🤛👏
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Thank you dear Wizard… alas I couldn’t channel Nick Cave and Flood but did record a spoken word version last night of utter nonsense, haha. Just added it to the post!
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B-b-b-badass! A masterclass, as ever. I like the sound of a reading. And then there’s the parting gift – I have two songs stuck in my head.
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Thank you, Jacob 😎
Okay I bit the bullet… and last night recorded a fun spoken word version and just added it to the post 🙂
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That was glorious! I ended up listening to it three times in a row, love them all but completely lost it when the queen came in 😆
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Thanks Jacob. Glad you liked, it was a lot of fun doing that 🙂 Have to say I could barely keep a straight face and stop myself cracking up when I attempted the queen… didn’t help that I accidently made her say ‘balls’ instead of ‘broad’ in the first stanza 😂🤣 (trivia: Elvis once released a fun single where he couldn’t stop laughing when he mispronounced one of the lyrics as ‘balls’, and spent most of the recording giggling and cracking up – it’s the ‘Lonesome Tonight Laughing Version’ (there is a version on Youtube) and I have it on single.
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Elvis styled it out just as you did! 😉
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😊😎
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The bottom of that feeding bowl doesn’t sound like a good place to be.
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The bottom of that feeding bowl sucks.
Thanks, Frank!
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Well done!
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Thanks, Mimi 🙂
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Beyond brilliant and I join the chorus of those demanding a sound version, preferably with the very apt Nick Cave, 🙂
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Thank you kindly, Doug.
Well, last night I recorded a fun spoken word version and just added it to the post if y’all want to have a listen 🙂
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That was magnificently bonkers!!!
First of all, after all the work we have done together I can finally put a voice to the face!😃
You know you’ve done something right when you are laughing with yourself while doing it.
Now bets were in favour of Arthur but…
…mate you really nailed Ian 🧙♂️!!
And after the much awaited goddamnmotherfuckingsonofabitch in that voice (!!) I was saying out loud : C’mon, give us a You shall not pass – and boom!!
I was ecstatic!!!
And don’t get me started on the family Guy & the Queen(ie)🤣🤣
I am glad you decided to do so – It is an absolute certainty that you gifted a lot of smiles to a lot of faces upon hearing this again and again and again…
B-B-Bravo!!!!
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Man, glad you liked it, was a lot of fun to put together 😂😂 I can do a much better Arthur than that, but all the clips were recorded in one take and it was like: whatever happens happens!
Was pleased how Ian turned out in the end, not too bad, and you know when I edited the ‘You shall not pass’ with a shed-load of reverb and listened back… I was rolling on the floor 🤣
There was also Bowie, Mick Jagger and Elvis but I chopped these out as the thing was too long.
As for Her Majesty… well, there goes my knighthood (again) 🙂
A mighty thank you for listening and giving me your thoughts, my dear, dear Wizard!*
*(said in the voice of Ian) 😀
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Well, after the fifth time listening to it and as I am enjoying a glass of strong beer, me and my wife said the same thing…
…So here it is out in the open for a popular vote:
You should think about doing a PODCAST!
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I’m speechless! (Well, almost…)
Chris is right, the words roll on the tongue.
And the readings are fun – in themselves and also because you obviously had such a good time making them.
Spectacular work altogether.
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Thanks very much Jenne. It was pointed out that the ‘weight’ of the poem probably demanded a more serious reading of it… but as you rightly observed, I had a whole lot of fun recording my daft voices 😁😁
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Hahaha. The impressions were so much fun to listen to.
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Thanks, Nicole 🙂 It was a blast to record them!
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Dude!*
engaging and thoroughly delightful what with that e.e.cummings vibe (updated for modern eyes (and ears).
very fun
(now, leave that damn bar alone! lol)
*continuing with our writing-Sixes-as-musical-performance-metaphor, I now believe have a sense of how Bob Mayo felt when Peter Frampton brought out the Talk Box for the first time
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Honeshtly guvnor, I only had two beers before I shpoke into the microphone 😉
Thanks, Clark, glad you enjoyed!
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The alliteration makes it fun for one to read to themselves, but it’s much more fun to hear you (and the others) reading it out loud! Nice six and nice recording!
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Thank you, Michael. You’re right, the alliteration made it perfect for that. Been dying to do a fun poetry recording for ages now, so I’m pleased I can score that off the writing ‘to do’ list 🙂
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Brilliant, you actually had me reading it out loud – and that’s something I never do, not even with my own efforts!
My Six!
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Thanks, Keith. Interesting that, I don’t read aloud either, just in my head to get an idea of the flow, but this one yes – it kind of demanded to be read aloud.
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Loif can be so much fun if you do it well! Sounds loike a loghly noight
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😂😂🤣 ar, just bostin loike, ower kid!
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😂👍
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