I was born six weeks premature. I got good grades but I left school before graduating. I’ve always had trouble holding a job for any length of time. Consequently, paying bills was often a problem. I topped out at 5 foot 3. That’s my life in a nutshell. 49, 50. This 50-word story was distilled […]
“Looks like an alien,” my son said of the horseshoe-crab shell: translucent, fragile, dwarfed by his palm. “You’re not wrong. They evolved in a world different from ours.” “Shouldn’t we clean it up?” he wondered of the carapace-littered beach. “Let the waves take care of everything. How about ice cream?” Tim Boiteau is a Writers of […]
A man spends so much time people-watching in a supermarket car park that he starts to make customers feel uncomfortable. Image generated with OpenAI “You’ve been sitting here for hours. Is there something I can do to help?” The girl surprised me while I sat in my car in front of the supermarket watching folks […]
Fireworks finale—a descending canopy—envelops them. “Whoa!” Her five-year-old’s hand, she holds. Through his eyes, awestruck, she watches. Her husband’s forced-enthusiastic presence, this moment excludes. Faraway pops-and-crackles, she hears from her bed. That little hand, she misses. Her now-adult son will hold her hand when she needs, she trusts. Source link
The day of the move, I watch you crouch by a box. Maybe nostalgia is a play of light. Maybe it’s denial. Either way, it’s embedded in your every move, the way you handle old letters—eyes soft, unfolding each one like a secret and saying, “Oh, I remember this.” A Turkish writer, Sarp Sozdinler has […]
A once-proud professional mourner struggles to survive in a post-apocalyptic world in which Happyness is compulsory. Image generated with OpenAI Dolora closed the last of the feeds. Nothing but personal ads and the usual organs and eggs. The lump in her throat hummed. Down, she told it. Quiet. From the counter, the Mister Coffee chimed […]
The sound of eggshells cracking echoed across the room. The sizzling bacon in the pan was soon joined by the eggs as the man hurried around the kitchen. His wife takes a seat at the table and her eyes tear up. “You have made an extra serving again,” she whispered. Omar Rihas is travelling the […]
A flick of the wrist brings a new page, new number, possible new beginnings. Can one calendar page make me a year older? Does it matter? Admitting to the day might result in friendly celebrations or freebies from businesses trawling for customers. Others don’t need the real numbers. Do they? Eileen comes from a family […]
Paper, barely white, ashen like your complexion, faded charcoal shading, smudged not erased. Each time, it looks a little less like you. You seldom model, but were you here, I’d place a page upon your face, trace the outline of a smile. Instead, I pierce the surface with sharpened lead. Steven Holding lives in the […]
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution
