Writing From Pictures - The Masked Polkas

My job is dull. My friends are dull. My family is dull. I live alone and generally have a largely dull life. The only place that I feel really alive is when I go to my monthly Polka meets. 

These are not just a gathering of music appreciators, these are people for whom the world begins and ends with Polka. And not just any polka, but our own special concoction of Masked Polka. Masked Polka allows you to become the music not just with your voice, but with your whole being and soul. We don't just enjoy polka, we are the new standard for polka.

The glorious birth of Masked Polka was all due to a happy accident, really. We had already been participating in a monthly Polka Meetup. Miles had suggested the idea in our Brooklyn Polka online meetup, and since the five of us all agreed that our Saturday nights were generally free, we decided, why not meet IRL? So our first few meetings were at the local cupcake shop, but we discovered that in order to share our beloved Polka music, we had to pass headphones from one person to the next, so Doris suggested that we start the meetup at her house. Her grandmother generally went to bed at 7 and wouldn't have been woken up by a jackhammer in her bedroom, so it worked out well for everyone.  

The masks were an accidental stroke of genius. The only night that Doris's grandmother stayed up past seven was on her monthly bingo games at the local church. Normally, the prizes were gift certificates to the local restaurants (for early bird specials only), or to the movies (afternoon matinee senior specials). However, this week, the church must have decided to clean out the basement of the adjacent public playhouse and just give decades worth of costumes to the old geezers instead.

So, in walks old Grandma Nana with a bag full of animal heads that I swear was bigger than her 85 pound frame. Zebras, horses, dogs, cats, elephants. She dropped the bag in the middle of the living room, yelled, "I won" as she shakily took both hands off her walker to triumphantly raised them in the air, and then shuffled off the bed.

We were all silent as we uneasily stared at the bag. Wordlessly, Miles reached in the bag and pulled out a horse mask. He grinned and slipped it on his head. One by one we chose a mask and pulled them over our heads. At first we were silent, but then Miles slowly reached for his accordion, as if there was a delicate spell he was trying not to break.

The music was like nothing I had ever heard. Before we knew what we were doing we were all up and joyously joining in, singing, playing and dancing. It was a joy unlike we had ever experienced, as if the music was lifting us in the air, floating us to the heavens.

We have never played music without the masks again. In fact, I now realize that all those hours outside of Doris' living room are the times where I wear a mask. In here I am truly free.

ARENA

The purple mountain. A glorious meeting point for the ancient purple moks. They practice their purple shaolin moves, striking from their shadows. Which are purple. As  you've might have guessed, the monks are purple. Their robes are purple, and their skin is purple too. The only thing that isn't purple about them is the food they eat and their internal body parts. That would just be weird.
Their enemies are the red lipped blue people. They wear golden jewelery as a sign of their strength. Also their weakness. With so much gold jewelry dangling from their necks, they move pretty slowly. However, in battle, they strike with staggering blows. Each fist mimicking the strength of a tiger's paw, mocking it's ability to break several bones with one hit.
Have you ever heard the saying, the enemy of my enemy is m,y friends? Well, this is where the flaming horse riding demons come in.The demons are a ridiculous lot, leaving fire in their wake of destruction and rampage. This fire kills not only the people of your home villages but all the crops you have raised. Both tribes, the red lipped and the purple monks are the enemies of the flamed devils. In order to prevent the flamed devil's tribe from topping on of the other's and then eventually obliterating any other race then theirs, then the monks and the red lips must band together to complete a common goal. The destruction of their enemies. What will happen after the flaming devils are defeated you ask? Only the hands of  fate will tell.
however, thinking that the sides are uneven, with it being a 1 v , the land sharks of metalmania are plopped into the complicated equation. The sharks strike without hesitation, and they only have a thirst drop blood that can be quenched with a massacre. The sharks hate the color purple, and they love shiny things. This wouldn't be a problem if the red lips weren't so obsessed with their jewelry that they would meld it to their skin. Looks like this situation is become a 2v2. bordering there line of injustice. What will happen next before the combination of pure bloodshed, and fire come together for a devastating compound? i worry for the monks health once they feel the lands sharks mountainous teeth entering their bodies. hopefully the monks can fend them off.
lo9oks like its time to even the score, so the mak wearing barbarians will jump into the fray. They are ruthless apex predators using their ,modern weapons and technology to brutally defeat their opponents. THey virtually hate everyone and everything, including unfair fights. The monks and the red lips are in ,luck. Now with the aid of scary freaky, give you nightmares, maks and modern technology, they seem to be an unstoppable  force. what's more, the horse wearing barbarians play the accordion, so thats a plus. Music for utter destruction.
But waits! theres more! for just 19.99, er i mean, the tiger tamer is coming in to the battle of awesome proportions. He has an arsenal of rusty bikes for throwing, and a tiger for cleanup. A tiger for cleanup you ask, why yes, the tiger tamer/ bike shop owner is an all powerful being that will even up the sides. The flame demons and the land sharks are going to need his help in order to
TurN THE TIDE. OR SHOULD I SAY, CEMENT. he has a cowlick for a hair cut in the back of his head, a sign of a t6rue warrior. Only the strongest of men and women, have cowlick hair cuts. It's a style thats
trending you know. The power of the cowlick is unbeatable.
in order for this battle of unjust proportions, there needs to be an arena. An arena so awesome that a person name d arena would approve! The subway! yes a perfect place for unnecessary fighting and bloodshed to take place. What a wonderful choice arena!
thankyou announcer/narrator/write/ shawn west
no problem arena no problem.
But thats nit all, the president just happens to be on the train. I(n the arena. What luck Both teams have. When one team is very far behind the other, the president, a neutral champion, will use his special move, aside from his primary, looking intimidating to the winning team and thats it, calling an airstrike. Thats right folks get your tickets now if you want to see limbs flying from explosions that are as high as the arena they are contained in! get ready because the president is flying in from washington just to look intimidating.
But guess what  folks,there are more champions that are jumping into the fray. The magical flying bear is flying in from alpine woods. he is a majestic being that's roar can push back any person to 100 feet./ i mean yard! yeahs yard sound more legitimate. lets go with that. Even the mall cops who don't belong in the forest, and the forest rangers wh9 do belong their, cant handle its untamed awesomeness, and its licked fur. With it's bear firmly scratched nothing can stop this bear's unmistakably;e power! good thing that the bear is on the monk team. better yet, the flying bear isnt even winged.,
Look like there's gonna be another landscape added to the ranea. I don't know t=what arena was thinking, but it looks like we are going to shift the battle to the golden forest. This means no president sadly. He was conveniently ion the bus to get to a meeting and he cant cut. Unfortunately. The golden forest is home to the red lipped people who navigate through the gold with surprising agility see as they have ridiculous amounts of jewelry on their necks. Everything is gold in the golden forest even the animals and the plants, and the...I am starting to doubt arenas choices.
HEY
sorry man i dunno about this golden forest
what wrong with it.
many many things,. i wont be able to talk about them in much detail but know that your choice was not the best one you could make
looks like I have to go to the next slide.
WAIT WHATS WRONG....

  I look back at the purple mountains. “Oh my god,” exclaimed Momo. She had never seen a mountain so big. They were probably A gazillion times as tall as the trees that were in front of the mountain. She wondered. How come the purple mountains weren’t in the history books?

  Anastasia looked in the mirror. Eyes went from a Bright blue color to a faded yellow. Her radiant olive skin had turned the color of a smurf. “What has happened to me?” Anastasia thought. She looked down at the Wine she had just drunk. That must have been what caused it.

   Fire was blazing all around me. I could feel the lava touching the back of my legs. Just before the lava was about to suck me in, I reached my horse. “Onward!” I shouted to my horse. We must warn the people.

  There I was on the biggest ship in the world wondering if I would ever make it back to Portland. A man decorated with armor rushed toward me and tried to grab onto me. That second, I hopped on top of the railing.

   

  I can’t believe Bill talked me into this. There we were sitting there wearing animal heads looking like idiots. “It’s good for business sherill!”Bill would tell me “ You know pop culture these days. I rolled my eyes under my mask.

I don’t care what kind of scientific Revolution this would be. I was not gonna die for SCIENCE! The cheetah stared into my eyes and I stared into its. Its yellow eyes were like a portal to another world. Just when I got calm, the jaguar attacked. I heard from my headpiece, “ABORT MISSION!!!”

  There is a green bus. It did not look very clean. It was grimy, smelly and ugly. However, inside was the our president, Barack Obama! What was he thinking? I don’t know. Why was he there? Whatever it was, it had to be important.

WHY DID I AGREE TO THIS!!! IM SCARED YO DEATH, SWEATING, AND IN A BEAR SUIT! I DIDN’T KNOW I WOULD BE ON A TRAMPOLINE! IM TERRIFIED OF THEM.

  It was the cheese revolution. The entire world was shades of white and yellow. It had the essence of milk and Dairy.” It’s pure heaven!” buster exclaimed. He started stuffing his face.

Will O' the Wisp

Will o' the Wisp

I was walking down a muddy trail in Scotland, the dumbest place to vacation.  I had lost my boyfriend and little sister, and was thinking about how stupid it was, when I heard a noise.

It was a high pitched moan, and I turned to see a girl about thirteen years old. She was very pretty, with soft brown hair gently framing her face, and mist grey eyes.  There was blood all over her lavender hoodie and she look scared. "Please," she said in a tiny voice. "I need your help."  Maria, how are you going to do this? You're a sophomore in college with a nine year old sister to take care of. You have a love life. Do you really want to save some little girl when you have a whole life to live? Being the idiot I was at the time, I went towardsa the girl. "It's OK, sweetie. I'll get you to the nearest hospital." She disappeared just like that, and reappeared a few feet away later.

I had followed her for a while. and I had finally arrived at the edge of a cliff.  Then the girl began to smile, and it was a nasty, twisted grin.  A grin full of cracked, yellowed teeth that not even the best braces could repair. And those eyes, which used to be a soft and pretty grey, were now a grey of lies and nothingness.  A small tap at the edge of the cliff, and I was hurtled into a white sky.  The muddy ground came closer and closer. One little ominous crack, and mud and blood everywhere. But just for a moment; then there is darkness.

Later, I woke up in a hospital room, scarred and aching.  I'm still there, away from my boyfriend and Connie, my beloved sister.  The doctors say that my will O' the Wisp girl didn't exist. But I know she is still in Scotland, somewhere. Waiting for new victims like me.

Cousins, closets and carrot juice

I am from a haunted house in Brooklyn With a scary basement and a old attic. I am from a home that is too quiet. I am from a childhood where my cousins were always teasing me, laughing at me and being mean to me, But there’s this huge closet and I mean huge, with nothing, but clothes, shower curtains and bed sheets. I think of it as a cave, where I can be alone, playing with my toys. Then comes growing up… I am from a place where the fridge has nothing but carrot juice, oj, milk and eggs. The place is so huge though that you could keep a elephant there, sadly though I have a bird (named after Yoda from Star Wars). I live in a place where you could only watch TV and sometimes video games. This place is made of stone that’s brown, called a Brownstone. This place is where I’m from and where I was raised. This place is in Cobble Hill, in Brooklyn. This place is where I am from.

Cousins, Closets and Carrot Juice

I am from a haunted house in Brooklyn,
with a scary basement and a old attic.
I am from a house that is too quiet.
I am from a childhood where my cousins were always laughing at me,
because they lived with me.
But iI would go to this huge closet...
and I mean huge with nothing, but clothes, shower curtains and bed sheets.
I think of it as a cave, where I could be alone.
The comes growing up in a place... where the fridge has nothing, but carrot juice, oj, milk and eggs.
This place is so huge though, that you could keep a elephant there,
sadly though I have a bird (name after Yoda from Star Wars), don't get me wrong, I love him, but an elephant would be fantastic!!!
I live in a place where you could only watch TV, and sometimes video games.
This place is made of stone that's brown, called a Brownstone.
This place is where I'm from and where I was raised.
This place is in Cobble Hill, I Brooklyn.
This place is where I am from.

I'm From Poem

I'm from Queens,
and I can tell you this.
That life in queens was way more different then it was today.
Our neighbors were all friendly and could be seen frequently throughout the building.
We would all smile as we saw each other and give friendly hello's.
When my mother went out, there was a friendly babysitter who would look after me and my friends.
I'm from sunny days and car rides with my family.
 I'm from running around and laughing around the house.
I'm from peaceful and happy dreams at night.
And from nice relaxing mornings.
I'm from Queens, New York.

Sunset Symphony

Sunset symphony

Here it comes right now
the best part of my summer
Where a choir of colors sings a brilliant masterpiece
Beginning by singing a pale, buttery yellow
that gradually fades to sweet, rosy pink
then royal purple, the first stars begin to poke out and play
Finally, the last song
of a deep, rich blue
as the music fades to nothingness
constellations applaud.
This is the highlight
of a summer's night.