You loved my fool.
The gooseberry bush grew uninvited, yet you took such care of it.
But now you’re gone, I let the thorns etch my skin and hook my flesh.
Yes, you could be prickly at times, but I’d rather you were still here to make me feel alive.
R.H. lives in Nottingham, UK, has several short stories published, and co-founded the Sutton Bonington Campus Creative Writing Group as a staff wellbeing event.
The sun sits pretty and
all of its well-tanned followers
look up and smile, say ahhhh,
and stretch themselves out
on the low-tide sands or on
Grandma’s hand-made picnic quilt
in the high-noon high-grass pasture,
basking and happy.
But everybody
knows this: All the really cool people
worship the moon.
Ron. Lavalette has been widely published in both print and pixel forms. His first chapbook is now available from Finishing Line Press, and a reasonable sample of his work can be found at EGGS OVER TOKYO.
Before his hopeful outing with a visiting former love, the old man buys a new baseball cap. He shapes the bill with care. Looking in the mirror from under the just-so curve, he sees for a clear moment back to the first time he ever felt he looked truly cool.
Lynn Kozlowski’s writing has appeared in such places as 50-Word Stories, The Quarterly, The Malahat Review, Poetry Breakfast, and failbetter.com. He has a volume of short pieces, Historical Markers.
The story of the week for July 1 to 5 is…
Surprise Ending by Bob Thurber
After the fluid was sucked from my brain, other systems crashed. A bag on my leg, helmet on my skull. They said I could forget about walking. And then my sister came in, full of our secrets. “Remember when I taught you how to pick a lock? Pick this one.”
Cheryl Snell lives to tell the tale.
April’s showers were nothing compared to its deluge of awkward compliments on the wig. Fatima washed up on her doorstep, drained from the month’s third chemical assault, and adjusted the monstrosity. The tulips budding in the garden caught her eye, and a smile like the sun broke across her face.
Râna hates writing about herself but loves referring to herself in the third person.
Looking back, not a single one of us would dare question his leadership. However the word “disconcerting” would enter our conversation every so often. What raised the alarm was his constant gibberish about listening to the “inner growl.” It’s too late now that we’ve all been busted by animal control.
Johannes Springenseiss is a world citizen and raconteur. He mostly writes speculative fiction and creative essays, which he has published in various literary magazines.
Growling gleefully. The grill was a cacophonous contradiction at Mr. McCleary’s house. Especially on the fourth. Mike McCleary’s championship celebration. Sophie McCleary’s admission to the Ivy League. Jim and Lainey Mac renewing their vows. Verbal sparring. Political differences. Friends as witnesses and willing participants. Through it all? The neighborhood centerpiece.
Steve Doherty wrote this story.
Drawn. Erased. Redrawn. A derby instead of a Stetson. Erased. Redrawn with an eggplant nose, pencil-dot eyes. Eyes erased. Replaced with slashes. A handlebar mustache switched out for a Hitler. Voiced by a heavy-drinking man. Then a heavy-smoking woman. Finally, by a nine-year-old girl. Protagonist. Demoted to background character. Cut.
Joshua Michael Stewart is the author of three poetry collections. His work has appeared in the Massachusetts Review, Salamander, New Flash Fiction Review, and elsewhere.
We measure it by increments—the infinite wheel of the cosmos—eons and ages. The languid traverse of shadow on a sundial. Days spool into memory—weeks into months, months into years. We had all the time in the world… until the blink of an eye and you were gone.
Nick Young is a retired award-winning CBS News Correspondent. In addition to 50-Word Stories, his writing has appeared in dozens of reviews, journals and anthologies. His first novel, “Deadline,” was published in September. He lives outside Chicago.