The story of the week for October 21 to 25 is…
Grocery Run by Mariya Khan
and
Like a Crow by Louella Lester
PAUL LEWTHWAITE: A Rotten Crop
The zombies falter. Flesh becomes corrupt. Limbs are shed; animation a struggle.
Yet the fiends still pursue us. Onto our fields we stagger; new furrows disrupted by frantic feet.
Spades raised, we strike; the dead fall, cleaved into pieces. Good fertilizer, for our crop.
We live on, another winter assured.
Paul Lewthwaite, who hails from Scotland, hopes to start writing again after a ten-year hiatus.
KATHARINE VALENTINO: Introducing Abraham Lincoln
Shayna was standing as still as a statue, small fists clenched, glaring up at Abraham Lincoln. After almost a minute, she took a deep breath, marched boldly up, and slapped that huge bronze boot. Then she stated, with great satisfaction, “He’s not real.”
So we went to feed the ducks.
Katharine Valentino retired from drudgery in 2015 and now stays busy as the owner of Setting Forth—on a Literary Itinerary and as co-lead and website administrator of Plastic Up-Cycling.
MARIYA KHAN: Grocery Run
Her eyes scan the fruits and vegetables—oranges, apples, eggplants, peppers—neatly piled like cascading mountains. Nothing like the crowded, messy markets of home. No loud negotiations and catch-ups with familiar faces. Here, just screeches from carts.
Swallowing the lump in her throat, she takes some okra and moves on.
Mariya Khan is a fiction writer from Maryland and Editorial Assistant at National Geographic. When she’s not visiting museums or exploring D.C., you can find her cooking new recipes while binge-watching crime dramas.
BOB THURBER: Shelter from the Storm
In my teens, when it wasn’t safe to go home after school, I’d hide out in the library.
To fool the librarians into thinking I belonged there, I flipped through books and magazines.
In this way I slipped into an intimacy with words from which I have yet to recover.
Bob Thurber is the author of “Paperboy: A Dysfunctional Novel” and two collections of stories. A celebrated master of Flash and Micro Fiction, his work has appeared in 60 anthologies, received dozens of awards, and been used in schools and colleges throughout the world. He resides in Massachusetts where, though legally blind, he continues to write every day. Visit his website at BobThurber.net.
AJ JOSEPH: A Well-Travelled Man
“Where’s your darling husband?” asked my neighbour, peeking above our shared hedge.
“Travelling,” I replied, juggling the parcels I held while struggling to open the boot of my car.
“Oh? Where to?”
I wiped one of the parcels that was slightly blood-stained and pushed it further into the boot. “Everywhere.”
AJ Joseph occasionally writes at Words from Sonobe and tweets very short stories as @sonobeus.
LOUELLA LESTER: Like a Crow
Crows waddle about pecking at the grass and dirt. He, in his black security guard uniform, waddles along too—arthritic knees splaying his legs. On the nearby street, tires squeal and horns honk, sending the crows skyward. He stops, turns his head, watches them, surely with a twinge of green.
Louella Lester writes in Winnipeg, Canada. Her flash writing has appeared in Spelk, Reflex Fiction, Flash Fiction North, Microfiction Monday Magazine, Fewer Than 500, and Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine.
CASEY LAINE: Like the Rain
Like the rain,
A poem falls
When conditions are propitious.
Emotion builds
Like condensation,
Then drip-drop,
Words patter down
Sometimes the flowing
Quenches your thirst
Or washes you clean.
Sometimes the flooding
Strips you bare
To your foundation.
When a poem falls
Into your heart,
It is best to listen.
Casey Laine comes from a long line of talkative women. She works as Fantasy Editor at Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores and publishes an annual anthology of fiction and poetry for her writing group, Writers Assembled. In her spare time, she chases butterflies with her camera. Find her on Facebook.
JACKIE HEWITT: In the Beginning
When that Trickster God
created beings to amuse himself,
He had an eye toward evolution,
but was certain,
whether it involved opposing fingers,
eventually walking on hind feet,
or thinking they got the joke,
whether they did or not,
they would never be free
of the nuisance of bellybutton lint.
After a lifetime of writing, Jackie has embraced the 50-word story as a life form, bringing clarity and concision to the world around her.
MIPOET: The Winding Trail
I walked along the winding trail,
the dog running before me,
my wife next to me,
with cliffs to one side,
and a river to the other.
Tall grasses, as tall as me,
and evergreen trees, everywhere.
The wind blew gentle,
as grey clouds drifted by,
and I pondered existence.
This poem was selected as the winner of the Commaful.com 50WS Contest! Read the original post here.