~

Due to lack of gnomes,
the Museum of Gnomery
no longer serves tea.

~

Friend and fellow author Vanessa Barger has  started up a Wednesday Muse writing prompt exchange, and I’m happy to be taking part. Last week, she sent a handful of writers the above photo and ask us to write something. I told Vanessa my “somethings” would likely be haiku, as I’ve been interested in exploring compressed forms of late. (Plus, I’m nearing the close of my work-in-progress and so many, many words are spilling out there, that I wanted some white-space here.)

I grew up gnome-crazy, and would pore over Wil Nuygen and Rien Poortvliet‘s illustrated book of GNOMES for what seemed like days on end. In fact, it still has an honored place on my shelf.  I think it’s quite possible that my love of tea has two sources: my mother and Nuygen and Poorvliet’s book of Gnomes.

At any rate, Vanessa’s photo made at first excited for the color and charm of the cottage, and then, as I looked closer, exceedingly sad that it was all contained within a rather sterile, zoo-like environment. I imagined the sun-glassed man and his plaid-shorted friend (you can just see the edge of him in the photo above) visiting a Museum of Gnomery, where the pretense of the gnome cottage exists without the gnomes or any of their life (or their tea, for that matter, which–as the pages below suggest–is pretty much synonymous with life).

Check out these other responses to the same prompt:

Vanessa Barger
Melanie McFarlane
Jessica Rubinkowski