Tuesday – Anything Possible – Finger Point Prompt – “Trash”

~ John W. Howell

 

Today, I randomly opened The Power of Three by Teri Polen to page 67. With eyes closed, I pointed to the page. The word closest to my finger is “trash.” That is our prompt today.

Trash by John W. Howell ©2026

“When are you going visit the trash young man?”

“Aw, Mom. I just got interested in this puzzle.”

“That’s not a puzzle, it’s just a bunch of sticks.”

“Yeah, and the idea is to make them look like something.”

“Well, mister, you need to put that stuff away and get to the trash.”

“Why do I always have to do the trash?”

“Because you live here and we each need to pull our own weight.”

“What about sister?”

“What about her?”

“I never see her do the trash.”

“That’s because she does other chores.”

“Liked what?”

“Well if you must know, she is at the creek .”

“Doing what? Throwing daisies and making wishes?”

“Hilarious, smart guy. I’ll have you know she is catching tonight’s supper.”

“When did she learn how to fish?”

“Dad taught her.”

“Oh man. I thought that was something special between dad and me.”

“No when it comes to putting food on the table. Now, I think you’d better get moving.”

“Okay, okay. Anything special?”

“Some fruit or salad would be nice.”

“Why aren’t we raccoons like other animals?”

“What do you mean?”

“You know. Hunt and catch prey.”

“Cause we are fat, lazy, and human stuff is easy pickings. Now get to it.”

“Yes, Mom.”

49 thoughts on “Tuesday – Anything Possible – Finger Point Prompt – “Trash””

  1. Haha! The necessities of racoons in urban settings. Not like they can forage in the woods, many of them. I should have caught on it was racoons! Nicely done, Sir.

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    1. We had one move into the house and stayed for a week. We didn’t know it was there until we put it together that the cat’s water was dirty, and kibble was on the floor. We finally found it under the bed in a guest room.

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  4. Dang! I read “just a bunch of sticks” and thought ‘I’ve got it–beavers!’ You keep me on my toes, John. 😀🦝🦫

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  5. Good one, John! I would see racoons often when we lived on some acreage. They couldn’t get to our trash which was held in the pole barn garage. Our dog would chase them away.

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  13. Ha ha racoons bringing home the bacon. Racoons are smart animals. I saw this TV documentary about an abandoned racoon kit who was taken care of by a family. He became a pet and got along very well with the cat and the dog. He learned how to open doors, used the litter box, and he refused to leave the house.

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  14. I was convinced they were beavers. You got me at raccoon! A mama raccoon dug under the canvas floor of the balcony of the house we lived in, in Cleveland. We didn’t dare go out there because she made a nest and had her babies there. But it was fun seeing her teaching them how to go down the tree she had used to access our balcony (top floor of a duplex.)

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  15. Clever as always, John. I thought it might be raccoons. I’ll never understand why some people think it’s okay to try to turn wild animals like raccoons into domestic-like creatures.

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  18. I am constantly amazed by people who can write stories so organically. I tried once and each took weeks. Might as well write a novel!

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  22. This brings to mind a very early morning run I went on many years back. I was arriving back at the house when who comes up the alleyway but a whole family of raccoons. They were coming back from having worked the third shift. They walked right past me, too tired to even make a scene I’m guessing.

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