I am having
High-order, ill-mannered thoughts
Inconvenient truths
As the saying goes
Understatement that it is
And I have always
Wondered why
Understatement
Doesn’t have a better word
Overstatement has
Hyperbole
Pointed overstatement
An extraordinary word
Understatement
Seems so…
Well
Understated
But I’m lying
Not about understatement
I cannot overstate it
I cannot be hyperbolic
About understatement or lying
But I digress
I dissociate
Because I am lying
About having these
Thoughts
I’m not having them
I mean that emphatically
Which is also a better word
Than understatement
And still I digress
Dissociate
Dis-associate
Because I also most emphatically
Do not want to have them
So I digress
Again
Diverge
Obsess about other thoughts
Any other thoughts
Or no thoughts at all
Even better
Any activity which annihilates
Thought
Television
Computer games
Hours-long arguments
On social media
Irony
Another great word
A device used properly
Only as a hammer on an anvil
I have arguments
About high-order, ill-mannered thoughts
To avoid thinking about
A particular set of high-order, ill-mannered thoughts
But I digress
From my digression
Which speaks to the power
Of dissociation
I dis-associate
From dissociation
But those thoughts
I don’t want to have
They want to be had
They want to be thought
And they’re knocking at the door
Pounding at it really
Against the big metal door
Protecting my consciousness
Like a hammer on an anvil
Even now
I am buttressing the door
Keeping it shut
As it reverberates
I desperately want
To turn on the telly
Play a game
Or open Facebook
Vancouver
British Columbia, Canada
Pic and a Word Challenge
Wait. What? Pic and a Word Challenge #289? If you’re wondering what happened to challenges #287 and #288, well, it has been pointed out that I did both #283 and #286 twice, so this one is indeed and actually #289. Which makes us back on track. 🙂
Thank you to my ever watchful and attentive readers. ❤
Last time we rode the Wakes. This week let’s hammer out some Irony, or seek something else to inspire you in this photograph of the Burrard Iron Works building in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
The Pic and a Word Challenge is (usually) a weekly creativity prompt offered (also, usually) Mondays.
Each challenge I provide a photograph of mine along with a single word. The challenge? Use the pic and/or word as points of inspiration to create something — a photograph, a painting, prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, longread or just a few words. You are welcome to use these two elements (photograph and word) literally, thematically or metaphorically. If you create both images and words, all the better.
To participate:
- Use any title you like
- Your response can be words and/or images
- You may use my image to illustrate your post, or any images you have created
- Mention that you are responding to the Pic and a Word Challenge
- Add a link to this post in your response
To help us find your response — whether on WordPress, Instagram, Flicker, Tumblr, etc. — you can also:
- Add a comment on this post to announce your response
- Apply the tag/hashtag “Pic and a Word Challenge” or “#picandawordchallenge” to your post
Each week, I’ll list the previous week’s responses at the end of the new challenge. I may also share some on my social media: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, etc.
The previous challenge was: Wakes

The word for last week’s Pic and a Word Challenge #286 (#286 number two, or #286b, for those of you keeping track 😉 ) was Wakes, along with this monochrome photograph of the ferry and sun wakes in the Strait of Georgia, British Columbia, Canada.
- A Wake in the Night, by Defying Atrophy
- She wakes not, by An Embarrassment of Riches
- Wakes, by WoollyMuses
View all the Pic and a Word Challenges, including the current challenge, on the Pic and a Word Challenge tag page.
Happy Creating!