The story of the week for November 15 to 19 is…
A Bridal Tames a Kelpie Horse by Nat Parsons
BRENDA BERNSTEIN: Hello, Heart
Hello, heart.
Have you been here this whole time,
Awaiting my attentions?
I have surely, sorely, neglected you.
Not obliged your knocks at the door,
Too busy to answer.
Yet you arrive with grace,
Offering me a seat at my table,
Bringing me to myself for a few precious moments.
Brenda is the owner of The Essay Expert LLC and the best-selling author of How to Write a KILLER LinkedIn Profile. She spends her days in the world of resumes and LinkedIn profiles and enjoys writing creatively when inspiration hits. www.theessayexpert.com.
MORDI STEPHANIE: A Stranger’s Grave to Mourn
Michael placed lilies against the gravestone. He pressed his lips against it and cried. After a few minutes, he left with the lilies, and a family of three arrived. They did the same as Michael, but left their roses there. They had every right to do so. Michael did not.
The writer has had interests in writing from a very young age, but is yet to publish any works.
STORY OF THE MONTH: October 2021
The Story of the Month is chosen from the Story of the Week winners announced from the past month.
The finalists for October were:
The Man at the Door by Cathrine Goldstein
Rain by Katherine Darlington
Legacy by Janet Feldman
The Two-Story House by Linda McCauley Freeman
Capers by Gary Paul Ballard
The winner of the October 2021 Story of the Month, and the $10 prize, is…
The Man at the Door
I’m sure many of us, if not all of us, can relate to this character’s search for purpose amid loneliness and routine.
NAT PARSONS: A Bridle Tames a Kelpie Horse
Give a tie to a man, show him an office, tell him from his boyhood that money will be the only thing to save his life, and teach him shame.
He will serve you forever and never see his children.
But that’s ok, because you will give them a tie.
Nat is still trying to understand why 8 hour workdays are a thing. You can find her on her blog itspastmybedtimebut.wordpress.com.
LAURA BESLEY: Life Through a Lens
“Get out more,” his therapist said, so he goes to the local museum, takes snapshots of every piece of artwork. Oil on canvas. Click. Lithograph. Click. Woodcut. Click.
At home, he transfers them onto his hard drive, names the file: Museum Visit, November 2021.
Never looks at the pictures again.
Laura Besley is the author of micro fiction collection, (Un)Natural Elements (Beir Bua Press, 2021), 100neHundred (Arachne Press, 2021), and flash fiction collection, The Almost Mothers (Dahlia Books, 2020). Having lived in the Netherlands, Germany, and Hong Kong, she now lives in land-locked central England and misses the sea. She tweets at @laurabesley.
JORDANA CONNOR: Pockets
Where shall I go when the wind turns sour? What shall I take for the road ahead?
Oh, the journey will be long. Keep safe, keep low, keep your own counsel.
Take green beads and a white stone, warm socks and a banjo. Take pockets for keeping dreams and teeth.
Jordana Connor is a long-time scribbler and fledgling submitter of short stories and flash fiction. She enjoys excruciatingly bad puns, delicious swear words, and the Oxford comma. She lives in Brisbane.
ROBERTA BEACH JACOBSON: No Fault of Mine
My favorite science teacher explained tectonic plates shift at the same speed as fingernails grow. We couldn’t keep our eyes off our hands that day. My nails had pink polish.
Fast-forward a few decades. Now living in California, I admire my tectonic red nails and wait for the big one.
Roberta Beach Jacobson is the editor of Cold Moon Journal.
JOHN HOLMES: Permanent Stain
Your clothes are shredded and sitting in flimsy charity bags.
Letters, turned to ash, like the empty promises they contained.
My phone, scrubbed clean of photographs.
Yet I still see you, haunting every crevice of my day.
And at night, you innocently stroll around my dreams, oblivious of my nightmare.
John Holmes is a flash writer who loves to cycle. This year, he has pieces in Fractured Lit, Paragraph Planet, Ellipsis Zine, Fragmented Voices and 101 Words. Winner of The Times (U.K.) short crime story.
YASH SEYEDBAGHERI: Nightmare
He wanted to sleep.
But credit card bills demanded. Inbox hummed. Deadlines crept up.
Time got away.
When he made it to bed, he tossed, turned, dreamed of speeding down hills.
He consumed Diet Coke. But he still imagined soft surrender, slumber.
Nightmares lingered, meandered.
He flicked on every light.
Yash Seyedbagheri is a graduate of Colorado State University’s MFA fiction program. His stories, “Soon,” “How To Be A Good Episcopalian,” and “Tales From A Communion Line,” were nominated for Pushcarts. Yash’s work has been published in SmokeLong Quarterly, The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, and Ariel Chart, among others.