Tag Archives: coping

TAWNIA COURAGE: Screams of the Heart

Submissions, Touching, , , ,

My son has a plot—his own little piece of real estate. The grass is sparse, so I tend it: raking topsoil, spreading seed, pouring water. New sprouts emerge, filling the aching gaps.

I remove the weeds, pretending he’s on vacation.

But my heart screams his name and I cry.

Tawnia is an elementary teacher in Ontario who recently started writing. She is revising her first novel, a YA sci-fi, and hopes to start querying agents soon. She recently told a Red Chair story via Zoom for the Graham Norton Show. You can find her on Twitter @TawniaCourage.

BOB THURBER: Stop looking at your phone, waiting for the dead to call

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, Top Stories, , ,

This is not a bar. This is not a place
to linger. People come and go
rather quickly. Usually
they’re in a hurry. Occasionally,
one might require
a moment to recalibrate,
to adjust to sudden loss,
the vanishing of someone
very dear, very special.
Before resettling into
stabilized day-to-day sorrow.

Bob Thurber is the author of six books. Regarded as a master of Flash and Micro Fiction, his work has appeared in Esquire and other magazines, been anthologized 60 times, received a long list of awards, and been utilized in schools and colleges throughout the world. He resides in Massachusetts. Visit his website at BobThurber.net.

MATTHEW EICHENLAUB: Five Years Old

Submissions, Touching, , ,

Weeping for his dead father,
Aunt Lizzie held him at the doorway
to the kitchen,
______________and would not let go.

Later, she spooned bacon grease over sizzling eggs.
Cooled their coffee and milk while he sat on her lap,
cup to saucer, saucer to cup, a sip,
______________and a giggle.

Matthew Eichenlaub is most fortunate to be living in southern Maine with a pickup truck, health insurance, and a new right hip. Thank you to the Essence of all that is.

JOHN YOUNG: Cat

Artistic, Submissions, Touching, , , , ,

Had the cat been mine I would have signalled its swift demise, thinking, what sort of life can a cat have with three legs? But there it was, keenly curious, joyfully hobbling around my garden, nearly catching two feuding wood pigeons, doing cat things. Well, for one short summer anyway.

John Young is an old chap grappling with themes of limits, longings, and finitude. He lives in locked-down St Andrews, Scotland, an ancient town with an ancient university, home of golf, home also – allegedly – of many ghosts (though he has not met any yet).

EILEEN MARDRES: Eternal Day

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, , ,

I look at the empty street, spot one lonely dog trotting along the sidewalk, its leash attached to a drone, and tear a page off my calendar without bothering to look. It’s still today: each hour, each event being torn off the toilet paper roll that has become our life.

Eileen is retired from working for others, now a full time Grandma and a part time writer of poetry and flash fiction.

JENNIFER L FREED: Beautiful Things

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, Touching, , , ,

My grandmother’s china—
the set I used to save
for holidays: fine
rims of gold, delicate
patterns of green—I use it

every day,
don’t worry about chips, don’t
delay its offerings.
These days I need
porcelain teacups, warm
against my palms. My brother

has died.

Use
the fine china.

Jennifer L Freed mostly writes poems, which have appeared in various journals and anthologies. See more on her website, jfreed.weebly.com.

MARJAN SIERHUIS: Coronavirus Resolutions

Amusing, Submissions, , , ,

Darn the holes in the socks
Touch up grey hair roots
Get up close and personal with some favorite cooking shows
Organize the kitchen cupboards
Attack the dust bunnies that reside under the bed
Binge read every single story published on 50-Word Stories
Or sit around and do absolutely nothing

Marjan Sierhuis enjoys reading and writing flash fiction. Follow @MarjanSierhuis

ALYCE CLARK: Two Hearts

Submissions, Touching, , , ,

Your heart gave out. Still can’t fully explain it, but my heart stopped working, too. Yours no longer beats; mine can love no other. One of us breathing; one of us not… And yet somehow, the results are the same: two hearts died that day. I remain single, yet taken.

Alyce Clark was so awed and inspired by the stories of others, she decided to write them for herself.

JENNIFER L FREED: While My Brother is Having an MRI

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, , , , ,

______to see whether the cancer
has also leapt to his brain,
my husband drives wintery roads,
bringing one of our daughters
to a birthday party. The dog
wags at the door, eager
for his walk, and the plow
leaves another ridge of icy snow
at the end of our driveway.

Jennifer L Freed mostly writes poems, which have appeared in various journals and anthologies. See more at her website, jfreed.weebly.com.

CONNELL WAYNE REGNER: The Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Amusing, Submissions, , , ,

At the supermarket the toilet paper was out. Shelves were bare. I got home and the news was suggesting that the toilet paper hoarders were using it to protect themselves.

It suddenly occurred to me that there was no need to worry about a zombie apocalypse amidst a mummy one.

Connell apologises for writing a non-fiction story on a fiction site.