FLASH FICTION

 

• BEFORE DAWN  October 25, 2012Night ridden fears and pools of tears, tracks left behind on dewy oilcloth and puffy pink eyes she could not hide.  Peanut butter sandwiches wax papered, soldiers lining the counter awaiting sleeping children, their school day cares and concerns at rest. A rest she never knew before dawn.

  JAM (c)25Oct2012

  BIRD ON A WIRE October 9 2012

  Wooden clothes pegs in mouth, cold-reddened hands pinning laundry on the line. A meagre sun seeps between frustrated clouds.  She carries the stiffened clothing gloveless, her tiny frost-bitten feet shoeing deep Ontario snow back into the house, the incisive eye of one lonesome bird on a wire her undoing.

  JAM © 9Oct2012

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  DON’T EAT THAT November 16 2011

  Don’t eat that, Joe said.  Danny swiped melon juice off his chin with one sleeve. Do you know humans eat two pounds of dirt before they die? Joe glanced from Danny to the watermelon, flicked off the ants and bit in.

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  RECURRING DREAMS  November 18 2011

  People race to safety of churches on hills. All I can do is say there is nothing we can do but wait. They look for comfort and direction when I have none myself. I reassure them all will be well. But I’m not really sure.

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• I MOVE ON   October   2011

• Trust me, I know how to navigate troops through broken eggshells. I move on tenterhooks slightly suspended over the realities until the penny drops. I can move on a dime if I have to. Address unknown.

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• WAKE UP    October 12 2011

• My older brother’s eyes were wide open and my little brother watched us both as I wiped the warm blood from my upper lip with the hem of my white T-shirt. Wake up, I said again. What the hell is going on, he demanded, finally. He always woke up swinging.

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  PLAY BALL September 30 2011

  Blindsided by lob:  20+ year close friend chasing my separated ex while feigning friendship for months, siphoning off me like thief to gas, bolstering her position. Ball hit me so hard, I need a match.
  

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• PLATINUM September 9 2011

• Elements of surprise succeed doubly well in wars between  superpowers. In suits of convention, their deals brokered with self-preservation in mind. “Plutonium, I said, you blithering idiot. What kind of protection is platinum?”

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• GOLD September 8 2011

•  Your smile shivered me above all the rest.  At last. I found a genuine, soulful man who wanted only a genuine soulful woman. Then I saw you in my car with her and knew it was not the gold in you but the cold.

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• SILVER September 7 2011

•  In metaphysics it is believed silver dispels negativity. Why is there no antidote for positivity? Can one not be too positive? So positive they forget there is balance to everything? I have no more need of silver.

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• ALL THE WAY September 1 2011

•  You asked if I was certain, I asked you the same. You said yes and put the gun to your head. With your head in pieces around me, all I wanted to scream was I lied, I wasn’t certain, please come back to me.

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• THE SECOND TIME AROUND August 31 2011

•  I forgive you before you even call. Every single time. It doesn’t matter why you stopped talking to me again, deleted me from your Facebook. It doesn’t matter what you do or say. I love you. You are my sister.

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• I HOPE August 30 2011

• The pillow was dented where her head should be. Teddy was gone, too. The front door was wide open, rain pelting in. I hope, oh, three years of this – I don’t know what I hope. There mother was, fast asleep cuddling bear, the porch swing stilled by their weight.

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• I DON’T WANT TO  August 22 2011

• …wear this face created just for you… didn’t see it coming. But you brought it out in me and now I am no longer who I thought I was but someone I never intended to be. The mirror reflects back too much of you. Goodbye to you. Hello again me.

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• MY GIRL August 19 201
• When I got her back to the love nest I created for us, my girl altered right before my eyes. There, instead of the sweet woman I had my eye on for months, she became something I could not anticipate.  Evil apparition? Not quite. My girl was just some guy.
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• GLORIA  August 18 2011
• When Gloria was reincarnated as a woman, she realized there were more than nine lives left to go. A cat would be good company. But what to call the cat? Ask her, someone said one night after the air was rife with empty beer bottles. Thus, “Oscar,” female cat, reigns.
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• MICHELLE  August 16 2011

• Michelle was my high school mate. With her straight blonde hair and cool John Lennon eyeglasses, I felt dead around her. I wanted to be her. Until the other day when I ran into a woman with Michelle’s face lost in limbs resembling carnival balloon art. Michelle was perfect. Once.

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