Today's prompt was inspired by a poem I wrote recently.
My father and I were driving together (no worries--I was the one driving!) and he was telling me about his grandparents, aunts, and uncles. I only remember meeting one great-aunt and her husband, but I did remember hearing about one of the uncles. He was a professional gambler whose existence is mysterious, as he did not keep in contact with the family. My father told me another (new-to-me) story about him during this drive, and that story made it into my poem about him.
Two facts: my father's memory and that the man was a professional gambler. The rest of my poem is supposition.
And that is your prompt for this week.
Take a person, an event, a secret, a mystery from your own family--someone or something that little is known about (or, at least, you know little about) and write about that lore. Freely fill in the holes with your imagination, and admit to playing with the truth.
If you have no family secrets--and I don't believe that as every family has secrets--write about the secrets of a friend's family or a famous family's secrets. I know 3 people whose father had a secret second family, for example. President Harding had a secret daughter with his mistress, Nan Britton, is (now) a rather famous family secret.
My poem is somewhat fanciful, as my family's secret (at least this one) is not traumatic. Yours may be more serious, so be aware that this prompt may take you to some troubling places. Because of that, I will not write "Enjoy!" as I normally do.
