Leaning back, she throws off her reading glasses and rubs her eyes, despairing. The screen before her glows, cursor a blinking heartbeat, a sludgy chuckle over words just written and publicly posted.
It grates that she even considers that her light mockery could get her on somebody’s radar.
Bad poetry and free expression has a knife’s edge over which we stumble, vulnerable feet bared and bloodied.
Underneath, the war machine continues its rumbling growl, an undercurrent of hate our country continually nurtures.
Shit’s about to get large-scale real.
© Liz Husebye Hartmann (2025)
The challenge? Write a story in exactly 6 sentences based on Denise’s one word prompt: MACHINE. Visit, comment, and write & post your own on SIX SENTENCE STORIES. The Café is open. Come as you are!
Valley of the Trolls 
Excellent commentary on social media and the impact it can have on all of us! Free speech should never be taken for granted.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Ann! Came on the heels of my previous post-rant.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s scary how many people don’t realize the implications of there being consequences for what they post! Free speech is always at risk, and these days more than ever.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Truth. We take it for granted.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yup, all that sh*t is coming. Not good. Not good at all. But we will keep going, we are all important… to write and read – and back again!
LikeLiked by 1 person
👍💜👍
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am so very, very concerned for the state we are in.
LikeLike
Me too. Hoping for better outcomes, but a struggle is inevitable. 😕
LikeLike
As ever, I fear history is about to repeat itself- and on our own soil this time. What a sad strange place to be. Very well crafted six sentences.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Violet. I am anxious about what’s coming, on the heels of what’s been rearing its ugly head for the last…oh…decade plus.
LikeLiked by 1 person
don’t stop writing
far, far better we continue to post despite how pointless/unheard/unrecognized/disregarded we think our thoughts-writ-LED are… it does have an effect, even if we do not perceive it directly
most bloggers, in my limited experience, who decide to ‘take a little time to, you know, recharge the batteries’ are never seen again…
good Six
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks! And thanks for the encouragement!
LikeLike
This is the sad truth.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We’ve gotta prevail. Somehow.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Amen. 🙏🏼
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Shit’s about to get large-scale real.”
“And it ain’t gonna be pretty” as the saying goes.
P.S. It’s never too late to wake up.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good point about social media: our words are “a knife’s edge over which we stumble”.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Excellent story, and I feel exactly the same.
LikeLiked by 1 person
A change has gotta come…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m not sure we’ll be saved this time. I think we are meant to learn a lesson… or they are to learn the lesson. Half of the country didn’t vote for this.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wondering now about how many just didn’t vote.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Quite a few if you go with the amount of votes Biden got in 2020. 😣
LikeLiked by 1 person
Waking too late…
LikeLiked by 1 person