Looking Back: A Quatrain

Written for Wea’ve Written Weekly.
Our PoW, Punam, challenges us to
tell a little story in three stanzas.

Our challenge is to write a poem in three stanzas, with no more than 12 lines in total. The stanzas can be different lengths. Stanza one: Introduce a character who finds something unusual or strange. Stanza two: Show what happens when your character uses what they’ve found. Stanza three: Bring the story to an unexpected realization.

^{Image by Me & ChatGPT}

Old Jonas found a tarnished copper key
Buried deep where garden roots entwine,
It hummed with a low, liquid melody
And glowed with a faintly silver shine.

He pressed it against the heavy cellar door,
The lock turned as smooth as a sigh,
The darkness dissolved on the stone floor,
Revealing a brilliant morning sky.

But stepping through into this great expanse,
He looked back from where he had just fled,
And caught a sudden, terrifying glance:
He was the ghost haunting the house instead.

NAR©2026
#W3

This is “Ghost Behind My Eyes” by Ozzy Osbourne

W3 Prompt #233: Wea’ve Written Weekly

^{Everything on The Elephant’s Trunk was created by me, except where otherwise indicated, and may not be used without permission. Thanks for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.}