Save the children. Save the world. Start with one child. That child. The invisible one. Or the loud one. The awkward one. The one whose smirk and sneer builds walls. The one whose smile bends like a question at your Good Morning. That one. And then that one. Give them a book. Give them a …
Once, my brother ate an onion whole. I was six, he seven, and partners in harmless crime. Cowpoke hats and cap gun pops our soundtrack. Dared by neighbor boys, a burly sullen group whom he admired, he chewed and heaved, tears raining, while I stood guard. Too late I learned people are onions. Sweet and …
A grizzled, gap-toothed man asks to break a twenty for his bill. I keep all m’fives, he tells the waitress. The man at the counter laughs. I like keeping all my money, too. Naw, the fives. He holds a bill aloft. The ones with E. When I was little and loud, my favorite word was, …
The boy saw the man snap the wishbone to destroy the universe, but because he was little no one heeded his cries. *****
Despair choked. Cultivated joy. Harvested peace. *****
Home from the hospital, my daughter says, Why, Mom? The big things, yes. Fire and flood. Hypocrisy and hate. But that’s not what she means today. Today, she means the mystery of unintelligible suffering. When she was little, I knew all, healed all. Her growing stole my magic. Her growing made me mortal. Now she …
Once upon a time… A good little girl waits patiently for her fairy godmother to return the voice her father stole then buried, unmarked, in the woods surrounding their condo. In this version, they forget about her and she dies. Or, They remember her, but they sell her voice and keep the money. Then she …
Shoulda never let the hags move in. Concoct their poisons. Invoke their hell spawn. Enough. Enough. Enough, I spit. I hereby evict the coven from my head space. Peace in.
When the very old man was a very young man, he discovered a bucket brimming with time, clear as rain and heavy as gold, but in his haste to secure it from greedy marauders skulking among the dawn’s shadows, he tripped and tumbled and spilled its contents onto the parched soil above which the scorching …
My microflash story “Come Live with Me and Be My Love” is included in the fall issue of Sunspot Literary Journal. I’m honored and thrilled to be included in their publication and to have had my piece accepted by them in only a few minutes! You can download a copy and read the entire issue …
My Name was Supposed to be Elizabeth Ann 