🆆 Micro Monday: Hard Work
#171 on to-do lists, trips to the zoo, and neon lights
This is Writer-ish with Darien Gee, where I help you write your most powerful stories in 300 words or less. If you’re new to micro prose and writing with me, check out this post here.
I. This Week’s Practice
Quote #171
We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own “to-do” list.
Michelle Obama
Prompt #171
Tell me about a trip to a zoo.
Set the timer for 10 minutes and start writing. When the timer goes off, give the piece a title, count up the words, add it to your TOC, and post it below.
II. This Week’s Micro Prose
This section features micro prose (300 words or less) by me and other writers, including members of our community. Submit your work for consideration here.
Ode to Neon by Marilyn Woods
You. You make me think of my salad days in honky-tonk bars full of fringe and cowboys in Lubbock, Texas, Dan Flavin’s installations of fluorescent flamboyance, and Times Square. And here you are in my office! Neon strips of light. Electric non-mellow yellow and show-stopping red, lighting up my work and my life. I’d say you’re cool, but your colors are vibrant and HOT! One time when I had a neon sign made to declare my love for my husband, the artist cautioned, “Don’t use blue or green. Women’s complexions look terrible when a cool color shade is cast. Ghostly.” For that Valentine’s Day gift, I selected a hot, hot, hot Barbie pink. Or maybe it was Wicked’s sugary, syrupy pink. Doesn’t matter now. It glowed for two decades in our winery until he died. Enraged, I threw the sign in the dumpster—the shattering sounds still resonate. Light years later, I tiptoed back into the neon world of my youth, mounting two long lines of light on the wall near the window. One red, the color of brake lights. The other, dazzling yellow like the brightest southern California sunny day.
190 words. Marilyn Woods is an artist, educator, author, and docent at The San Diego Museum of Art. Her books include The Orange Woods and After Goya. Marilyn had a career in broadcasting in major US cities with a second career as a farmer. Follow her blog, “Life’s Second Acts.” marilynwoodswriter.com
III. This Week on Writer-ish
10-Minute Live Writing Sessions (LWS): Apr 7, 2026 Tues 2:00 pm PT
There’s still time to register! “Short, Shaped and Submitted: 6 Weeks to Better Micro Prose” starts this week: Apr 7, 2026 Tue 5:00-7:00 pm PT
Mark your calendar … in May we’re celebrating a “Month of Micro” with a 31-day micro prose challenge for paid subscribers! Oh yes, we’ll be doing some writing, my friends, and possibly making a little magic.
IV. From My Desk
I am finally home home, meaning back at my own desk in my own room in my own house after another week of travel. A lot has happened in the past week, and all I can say is … breathe.
Breathe and keep checking in, breathe and keep moving forward. Or, breathe and tuck yourself back into bed and rest. Breathe and gather with a friend or two and find some joy. Breathe and write for 10 minutes—it will help you remember who you are.
My food and memoir workshop with Abigail Thomas was rescheduled for May 3, 2026 Sun 10:00 am-2:00 pm PT and we have a few open spots if you’d like to join us.
Thank you for being here. I’m grateful for the kindness, curiosity, and creativity you bring to our community.
warmly,
Darien
P.S. To see what’s happening on Writer-ish this month, here’s the full calendar.
A trip to the zoo 2 parts WBH 246 +264
First i need to say i Hate zoos, but around the time my son was 3 i decided we would go see what the local zoo was like. The main reason being that my hilltribe partner at the time had never been to a zoo and because of his humble upbringing, never had access to tv, so no nature documentaries to see what animals existed outside of the remote region he grew up in. So we went. For me t was quite depressing, the enclosures barren and prison like (as most are) but for my son and his father it was something else. This zoo did have many wild spaces inbetween exhibits and many chill cafe spots with distant views which was nice ... So we spent the day, explored every nook and cranny. When Debu recognized certain birds or animals his comments were not what one would expect; 'i know this one ... Very delicious'. It was difficult to respond - he came from a hunter gatherer rice growing people who were routinely hunted and killed by their own government. Dirt poor, no water, no electric, they wasted nothing of what they killed to eat. How could i judge?
The most memorable moment of the day was on an overgrown trail in the bird area - coming face to face with a being straight out of The Island of Dr Moreau ... I had no idea,what species but later learned it was a Greater Adjutant, or Hargila in Hindi.
Part 2
It stood as tall as me with only a 3ft chain link fence separating us. It's head looked like it belonged to a 95yr old senile man in a nursing home - bald with pinkish blue scalp, age spots, patches of sparse grey feathery hair, pale blue human-like eyes, huge beak that opened so wide a coke can could fit inside. It had this strange long wattle like appendage hanging down under the beak at least 15in long, resembling a stretched out ballsack! It seemed to have a broken wing. It also seemed a bit neglected, discarded - like maybe the keepers thought it was too hideous for the public eye. I immediately empathised with this strange hidden creature, far off the beaten path. Anyone with ill intent could come to this area and do whatever they wated with this bird. There were no cameras, no safety rail, no informaTion at all regarding this bird. I had to know who they were and where they came from. Quick search first brought up Maribou stork, a close relative but not THIS bird. This was a highly endangered almost extinct Greater Adjutant - who makes the Maribou look like a supermodel. The G.A. live mosty in huge open garbage dumps in India. They forage for scraps right alongside the humans who also survive from scavenging through the garbage. Women in India have become conservaton advocates for these birds.
Taking my niece to the National Zoo. (230 words)
My niece, Shailey, has a thing for pandas. She has books on pandas, t-shirts with their image, and really cute socks with cartoon pandas on them.
So it’s only natural that when she came to visit me when I lived in Alexandria, VA, our first outing was to the National Zoo to see the pandas on loan from China.
A country girl meets the city. To get to the zoo, we took the subway. The nearest stop was about a half mile from the entrance to the zoo.
The zoo is on a hill and lucky for us, the panda overlook is one of the first stops when you enter.
And we saw pandas. We saw one sitting on a rock inside their enclosure eating bamboo.
We saw another one laying in the doorway, refusing to commit to being inside or outside. This one was simply enjoying just being.
We also saw the brass panda and posed for a picture together.
Finally, we saw one of the painted panda statues near the entrance to the metro station.
Shailey has pictures with the statues and of the real pandas.
Seeing her excitement and her smile that day has always been one of the highlights for me of her visit. I can think of a few more places I took them too, but this one is the most vivid in my memory.