The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

The Worst of Prophets
by Angela Yuriko Smith

The best prophets are the ones no one likes. They have no friends, They stand alone and endure the taunts, the teases, the stones. They shout their messages from street corners, wearing madness and unwashed denim, robes with dusty hems, foil hats. They are often silenced with drugs and fists, institutionalized and ostracized. Still, they shout warnings, plead us to take heed, beware, beware and beware… they drink spit and eat shit for their reward. Those are the best prophets.

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I am a bad prophet. The worst. I have chosen comfort and love, friends and family over nurses and lithium. I learned to keep silent, to codify my language and hide my dreams in poetry, to claim the nightmares as fiction instead of prediction, to pretend everything was going to be okay. I whispered my warnings, polite and demure, a coward afraid of going back to who I was, mad in dirty denim, forced medication and silence, silence and silence… I should have, could have been louder. I am the worst prophet.

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Do I still have time?

Would you believe me now or

Do I stay silent?

Fiction © Copyright Angela Yuriko Smith
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com.

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Angela Yuriko Smith is a third-generation Ryukyuan-American, award-winning poet, author, and publisher with 20+ years in newspapers. Publisher of Space and Time magazine (est. 1966), two-time Bram Stoker Awards® Winner, and HWA Mentor of the Year, she shares Authortunities, a free weekly calendar of author opportunities at authortunities.substack.com.