Posts Tagged ‘Ground’
Sep
You
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
Run.
Feet crush the leaves; waves of terror crawl your spine.
Slide.
A tree – a savior! Red drops drip down from your ears to the ground.
Crack!
Terror returns like an old friend. It seems now is your end.
Look.
A challenge beckons you. Leaning around the bark, you peak into the clearing.
Empty?
Before you can contemplate, a hand wraps around your throat.
“Missed me?”
The version of yourself you keep locked away smirks at you.
“I’m afraid of the dark.”
The clearing dissipates as you are released.
Clink!
Chains now hold you down.
“I don’t want to disappear.”
From Guest Contributor Sydney Clark
Aug
Narcissi
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
Resplendent in her white dress, she headed down the steps from the veranda. He tightened his parka to stave off the wind and followed.
Behind the house they built, they strode toward the pond, their barren feet leaving a trail along the mucky ground. Her smile was terse, he clenched his jaw. He searched for something new to say, she shook her head. They knit their hands, now ringless, and peered at their reflection.
Later, when the children rushed out to search for them, all they found by the water’s edge was a white lily rising beside a thistle bush.
From Guest Contributor Nicholas Katsanis
Nico is a writer of magical realism and absurdist fiction. His work has appeared in 50-word stories and Literally Stories. Look out for his debut novel Bocce at the End of the World in 2022 and follow him on Twitter @nicholaskatsan1
Apr
Victory
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
The force of the sword against my shield knocked me to the ground. As the sword came toward me, I turned and pushed myself up. I could barely see through my protective head shield and the sweat dripped down my face. The man, large and fierce, came at me again, and the clanking of our swords filled the arena.
One of us would die, slaves no one cared about.
In one last attempt, I lunged, stuck my sword into his side and twisted. He moaned, collapsing to the ground face down. The crowd cheered.
I raised my hands in victory.
From Guest Contributor Lisa M. Scuderi-Burkimsher
Mar
The (Mis)Fortune Of Having Been There
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
The shadows that lurk in the background carry the suggestion of prison stripes. Cary Grant picks a flake of cigarette tobacco off his tongue. This whole time the Ferris wheel has been spinning in the traveling carnival of his mind. He doesn’t try to reason with the gods but mocks their Greek robes. Then, as night burns to the ground, he discovers the perfect partner in Rosalind Russell, who spits words the way a machine gun spits bullets. She knows without having to be told that movies are just life enlarged. There’s no one to feed, nothing to feed anyone.
From Guest Contributor Howie Good
Howie is the author of more than two dozen poetry collections, including most recently The Death Row Shuffle (Finishing Line Press), The Trouble with Being Born (Ethel Micro Press), and Gunmetal Sky (Thirty West Publishing).
Feb
Wilted Lily
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
Sarah awakened from a frightening dream, her nightgown pasted to her body in sweat. Her husband, Mark, was still asleep, so she gently lifted the covers, went to the bathroom, and splashed cool water on her face. She stared at her reflection in the mirror and remembered every detail.
It was her wedding day. At the altar she couldn’t breathe, her body slowly disappeared, and her bouquet of lilies fell to the ground.
“It was just a bad dream,” she whispered to herself.
She softly kissed her husband and went back to sleep.
Under the bed, rested a wilted lily.
From Guest Contributor Lisa M. Scuderi-Burkimsher
Jan
‘Tis My Life
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
A knock at the door jolts me off the sofa. I peek through the blinds then rush to the bedroom to throw on my favorite dress, hoping he’ll wait.
“I’m coming!”
I brush my hair and give myself a once-over in front of the mirror as I don my mask, careful to not snag my earrings. My phone dings. A text from him.
I dash to the door, but it’s too late. As he drives away, I feel sadness overtake me for a minute. Then I remember his purpose. Smiling, I look to the ground. My Amazon order has arrived.
From Guest Contributor Jennifer Lai
Dec
Kesaran-Pasaran
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
When I walked into the village, white fur balls kept falling from the sky.
“What are they?” I asked a villager.
“They’re kesaran-pasaran.”
They floated through the air like dandelion spores. On sunny days, they fell and covered the ground. On rainy days they spread and multiplied. The dead ones fueled the city. Their spirits harvested crops and generated electricity.
“What do we know? Our livelihood totally depends on them,” the villager said, laughing.
One day I left the village. When I turned back, the village was gone. Instead, white fluff balls spread as far as the eye could see.
From Guest Contributor Yukari Kousaka
Translated by Toshiya Kamei
Born in Osaka in 2001, Yukari Kousaka is a Japanese poet, fiction writer, and essayist. Translated by Toshiya Kamei, her short fiction has appeared in New World Writing.
Aug
Inkling Of Jackals
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
While you putter and sputter and wander room to room forgetting
there are jackals on the moon. They nip and shiver in a hidden corner of the Lake of Dreams, a secret pocket of atmosphere just big enough to make a den, a home, a scratching ground. Black eyes shine from once red-brown-white coats, now just ashen tufts of moondust, moondust, pale gray. The pups scramble up from their rough and tumble, fall silent, and sit still, narrowing their eyes and curling their ears at the little blue marble in the wet ink sky.
They are waiting for your Howl.
From Guest Contributor Brook Bhagat
Brook Bhagat’s poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and humor have appeared in Monkeybicycle, Empty Mirror Magazine, Harbinger Asylum, Little India, Rat’s Ass Review, Anthem: A Tribute to Leonard Cohen, and other journals and anthologies. She and her husband Gaurav created Blue Planet Journal, which she edits and writes for. She holds an MFA from Lindenwood University, is an assistant professor of English at a community college, and is writing a novel. Her poetry collection, Only Flying, is due out Nov. 16, 2021 from Unsolicited Press.
Aug
On Being A Man
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
HUBRIS CONTEST:
His backhand caused her body to pirouette grotesquely before landing face down on the coffee table.
Wincing, she rolled off the table, and sat up, mopping blood futilely from her mouth with the back of her right hand.
“Aren’t ya proud o’ me, workin’ all night?” he whined.
Unblinking, she nodded.
Then, the boy, who’d learned what a man was from his father, brought the cast iron pan onto the back of his father’s head with a sound like a loud wet kiss.
The man slid to the ground gracefully.
Beaming at her son, she said, “Now that’s a man!”
From Guest Contributor Jody Lehrer
Aug
Lucif And Mi
by thegooddoctor in Uncategorized
Lucif turns to his friend Mi. “Let’s go.”
“Nonsense, we have yet to explore.”
“With days of darkness, how can this be a safe home for our families.”
“No, we are staying.”
Lucif makes a run for the spaceship. He almost reaches the lever for the door when Mi pulls him back, knocking him to the ground. They struggle and with one sweeping kick, Mi flies in the air and lands hard on his head, yellow eye wide open. He is dead.
Lucif leans over his friend and closes his eye, then heads to the ship.
He is going home.
From Guest Contributor Lisa M. Scuderi-Burkimsher