Tag Archives: Bob Thurber

BOB THURBER: Early Morning Hike (Another Misadventure of the Broken Boys)

Artistic, Submissions, , , , , ,

On the slope to the river a deer leapt across their path. Barely ten feet in front. Everyone froze. A big buck. Graceful, nimble, terrifyingly quick.

Some of the boys lost their breath. They had all seen. Yet nearly half didn’t believe.

Very often the forest dreamed its own dreams.

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.

BOB THURBER: Hospital Visit

Submissions, Touching, , , ,

One time we sneaked in a dozen birthday cupcakes.

The nurses smiled. Grandpa ate the paper part. I watched him reach for another.

I said, You can’t eat the skins.

He gagged and choked. He was just being a goof. That was grandpa.

He’d eat paper to get a laugh.

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.

BOB THURBER: Weathering Another Day of Missing Her

Artistic, Submissions, Touching, , ,

Some aches, like some days, were worse than others. He swallowed a pill to make himself sunny, but within hours the clouds were back. He practiced his breathing.

Meanwhile, real clouds, gray and big as mountains, bumped against the window. Some kind of wild bird was cawing in the trees.

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.

BOB THURBER: Make No Mistake Where the Master Waits

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, , ,

Every night the master sleeps with his head resting in the groove of a guillotine,
the blade elevated, notched by a lever. Lanterns illuminate the narrow chamber.

All any disciple need do is enter and release the blade.

Each night the master dreams of the wisest, purest, most devoted assassin.

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.

BOB THURBER: Grand Theft

Submissions, Touching, , , , ,

Eventually the man who’d been our son-in-law remarried.

Regrettably his new wife didn’t want us in her life.

She connived and ultimately influenced her husband to keep our grandchildren from us.

Despite this extreme cruelty and betrayal, grandma remains no less “grand.”

Defined by her enduring love, she waits patiently.

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.

BOB THURBER: The View After the Climb

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , , , ,

In the morning she takes fresh bearings,
assessing the terrain, gauging the distance.
Night rain has left a low-lying mist distorting the landscape.

Maybe there exists, just beyond the farthest hill,
something else, something more to view
than lowland haze hiding steep rocky hills.

The wind blows right through her.

For C., of course.

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.

BOB THURBER: The Birth of a Legend

Adventure, Submissions, , , ,

The young witch knew what the child would be.

She tried to hide her concern when the older witches gave her slanted looks.

One day, deep in the woods, she said, “A boy? What do I do with a boy?”

“You begin by naming him Merlin,” said the oldest tree.

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.

BOB THURBER: Piercing Arrows

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

They had one thing to do, no words to waste,
time flew, they labored, days fell away,
fragments landed at the edges of dreams where factory workers in hooded cloaks weaved memories into light,
wearing masks made from shadows, peeping through slits, breathing in, sighting targets, stringing bows,
aiming steadily.

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.

Dedicated to the “50 Word Stories” group.

BOB THURBER: A Poet Laureate’s Death (3/15/19)

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, , ,

William Stanley Merwin passed away earlier today

and tonight there is something seriously wrong with the sky.

The moon is misaligned, hung crookedly low, a cockeyed smile

and all around there’s something the matter with the stars,

those that shine, those that hide, and those that blink like signal flares.

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.

BOB THURBER: Classic Two-handed Shove

Adventure, Amusing, Submissions, , , ,

Instead of returning home like a normal person the old witch blew the door off the hinges,
cackling as she swung her cloak, wafting the cape while twisting about.
But on this night the boy was ready, and the girl was ready,
their tripwire taut, the oven door wide open.

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.