Where do poets get their inspiration from?

The Muses?

What about writers?

This is the first set of your microstories. I am really impressed. Robert Graves’ poem “The Legs” triggered your response, which was great indeed. Your versions of Graves’ poem are varied and fun. I hope you enjoyed writing them as much as I enjoyed reading them. You'll

see how witty and surprising your classmates texts are. You, the muses and Robert Graves’ inspiring poem deserve all the credit. My editing has been limited to a couple of words. Congratulations again! 2nd ESO E 2011/12 might be a class of

wannabe writers and nobody has noticed it…

Your microstories show that you have grasped the potentiality of the genre. Long stories are not necessarily better than short ones. Remember Polonius’ words in Hamlet“ brevity is the soul of wit”

24 microstories unchained by Robert Graves’ poem “ The Legs”. Enjoy!

1 Toni Torner

Yesterday morning I was walking along the street when, suddenly, I saw a bike that appeared at the top of the stairs. It made a big jump, and then it landed onto the stairs, without falling to the ground. All the people were very surprised (or scared), but not because of the jump. They were surprised because who/what drove the bike wasn’t a person, they were two legs, two legs from the knees down.

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2 Marina Escarpa:

One day, in the morning, I was talking to my left leg about our relationship because I believed it was really going wrong. That day, I had seen my left leg cheating on me with another right leg. I was destroyed and my heart was blind. At night, my right leg and me had a argument about the event and we finally we broke-up. I was happy and sad with myself, but I was born again.

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3 Elena Flaquer:

I woke up, in the middle of the night, or that’s what I thought. I opened my eyes and jumped out my bed. I went downstairs, barely awake, and got an umbrella. I got out to the street and stood under the rain a few minutes, holding my umbrella. I was surprised because there were a lot of legs, wandering around. I put my umbrella down, to see the people. I chuckled, surprised. Was I dreaming? Was that possible? The legs were just legs, walking without knowing where they were going. Coming, going, walking, running. A few drops of rain fell on my shoulders while I was looking to that show, amazed. The rain on the road kept on tapping loudly, and the shoes of the legs splashed in the water. I asked myself, may I start walking like them? I touched my shins, and suddenly, I woke up, but this time I was really awake. Did I dream that? Most probably. I took off my sheets and stared at my legs. They were there, intact. Yes, I had dreamt it. But it had been the best dream I’ve ever had.

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4 Ariadna Balufo:

I was walking along the road on my way home. I was looking down, thinking about all my problems. Then it seemed that the road started to move like a ribbon on the air. There were lots of people going in opposite directions. Suddenly, my alarm clock rang, it was a nightmare!

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5 Marta Serra:

The last time I saw my legs, they were running by the wet road full of puddles. I tried to call them but they couldn’t listen to my voice and I saw how they disappeared against the grey sky.

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6 Silvia Martin:

Two tiny, beautiful, silky legs. They had a small or large problem depending on how you look at it. But let’s get to the point, their problem was that they didn’t find the rest of their body. They went on looking for it for a long time, but they didn’t know what it looked like. One day they were in the park trying to get suntan. And suddenly they heard someone crying behind them. And so there it was! a beautiful body crying because she couldn’t move. So, the legs realized that that espectacular body was theirs. They decided to hang out together. Today I still don’t know if they managed to make it work.

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7 Jhazmín Mármol:

I am a puddle of the forest. I’m never alone, sometimes birds bathe with my water. Yesterday something amazing happened. I think it was magical. A pair of legs were reflected in my water. When I closed my eyes for a moment legs suddenly became 4! From that day on they have always been together, playing and running without stopping.

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8 Maria Santos:

INSTRUCTIONS:

-they have a rhythm ( 1,2,1,2, left, right, left, right)

-they can walk, they can run, they can jump, they can’t fly.

-they can’t be separated.

-you can’t control them.

-they are legs and they are free.

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9 Marga Bauzà:

I’m a puddle in the woods, I feel like my surroudings are wet and I can smell cold in the air.

The shoes and the legs of the people pass over me and I hear them say: -Oh! The water of this puddle is very cold!

Some animals come and drink from my water, and when the sun reflects its light, I turn bright.

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10 Vladislav Nikolov:

One night I saw two legs with two shoes running, so I followed them. They ran into a very narrow street, but I followed them. The shoes started to run towards me, and I only saw 2 legs with 2 shoes. I was an inspired poet, so I wrote about it.

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11 Clara Mulet: THE RAIN

Some people hate me, some people love me. Some people use umbrellas when I fall, some people prefer to enjoy the water. I only know that when I fall from the clouds it is as if I did skydiving. And I like it so much!

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12 Miquel Blanch:

One day a man got up and saw that he had lost his legs. He found them alone and sad. So he asked them what had happened and his legs told him that they didn’t want to stay with him because he never did sport and they were bored. So he promised them that he was going to do sport and he recovered his legs.

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13 Júlia Mulet

Hello, I’m a puddle. I’m going to tell you a secret: my hobby is watching the anger of the people when they step on me. Wait! Oh my god, the poet in the grass is coming with his sons wearing rubber boots. Splash!…

14 Isabela Igorova.

Message from an umbrella.

Today I have to stay home, because the sun is shining outside. I know that you only think about me when the day is grey and cloudy. No one can protect you like me when the drops fall down from the sky and crash in your black hair.

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15 Andrea Fernández:

Hello, we are two legs without body. We search a body without legs. The body has to be friendly, beautiful, funny… And you have to like walking and running over the puddles, which is fun. If you are interested, call 156239654 . If you call now, we’ll give you a pair of shoes!

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16 Andreu Vidal.

Legs are useful for lots of things: to cycle, to play football, to do karate… But I think the most important thing that we can do is take a walk with them and think about everything they help us to do.

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17 Josep Pomar

One rainy day in the afternoon, when I was returning home from work, I fell down in the grass near the road side. When I got up, I saw that there were no people walking in the street. They were all legs and I didn’t know what was happening because the umbrella didn’t let me see the whole bodies of the people walking in the street. I was so scared that I fainted ...but when I got up, I was in my house watching TV.

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18. Isidro De La Torre

I was there, in the center of the road, nobody in the street. Everything was very dark when suddenly a big car stepped on me. I dispersed and disappeared. I was a puddle and this is my death story.

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19 Joan Vidal

There was a roadside full of legs, without their bodies, just legs. Some were entering the shops and some were running, with trainers. It was a cloudy day and I was sick, I thought it was real, but it was not.

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20 Goran Dimitrov:

Two legs are running, two legs are walking.

One leg is running, one leg is walking.

-Where’s my left one?

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21 Joan Sebastià Bosch

That day was horrible, legs began to appear in the buildings, stepping on all the puddles of the city and constantly splashing and splashing and annoying everyone. These were somebody’s legs, but just the legs, with no owners, walking without control.

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22 Tomás Golomb:

When Robert Graves was going to his house along a little road, he heard a sound and... coming out from a bush he saw a pair of feet. Robert was scared. It rained and he ran. He slipped, but quickly he got up and went home and he was safe. After this time he never saw anything like that again.

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23 Ariadna Oliver;

Confessions of a leg.

I, a right leg, see things from a unique perspective. My knees, my waist, my belly button and neither my eyes can see the world like me. From down here everything is so big, everything is so simple. From down here I really understand that everything falls down. From down here I can see how other people progress. When you’re down here you learn how to appreciate what you see, even small ones.When you are standing on the ground you can see how quick things progress, you also realize that the others do not care what happens around. Come and go and never stop.

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24 Marina Bàrcenas:

LEGS 1: Hey Robert!

LEGS 2: What are you doing Robert’s legs?

ROBERT’S LEGS: I don’t know. I’m lost.

LEGS 2: Oh, Good luck! Bye bye. I have to go to my sister’s house. Sorry.

ROBERT: What is this? I see only legs!

(Robert’s legs start to run)

ROBERT: Eh, where are you going? I need you.