Posts Tagged ‘Guest Contributor’
Dec
Coffee?
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
Coffee? I asked.
Totally, you replied.
When I offered an invitation, you always accepted. You never extended one yourself.
Was this friendship a one-way mirror, a one-way road, a one-note song?
Over several years, I pondered what it signified. If a friendship is only one-sided, is it a friendship at all?
I waited. I didn’t hear from you. Months.
Lunch? I asked.
Can’t wait, you answered.
More months later.
Dinner?
Tomorrow? Your text read.
Your company was always innocuous, comforting in a way. Reliably benign.
I never messaged you again. After nineteen years, that was the last time we spoke.
From Guest Contributor Justene Musin
Dec
The Park
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
Since the death of my father, I made it a habit to walk in his favorite park every Saturday, something we always did together. Sometimes we had a catch, until one day his hand slipped, and the ball landed in the lake with a splash, and people chortled and pointed. That’s when I knew his Parkinson’s was getting worse. Soon after, he was unable to do the things he loved, gardening being one of his fondest.
I stood by the lake and listened to the children playing when I saw something float by.
It was the ball from our catch.
From Guest Contributor Lisa M. Scuderi-Burkimsher
Dec
July 25th
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
What a disgusting way to look at someone. Like you can not, so you do not. So what are you DOING looking at me if you can not? I can see it not happening for you.
Your reality will not let it happen, so you don’t acknowledge
what is reflecting in your eyes
go back to what is yours
go back to what is in front of you
let me slide into the background
I am nothing
to you now
I am nothing
I am the crowd
this strange nothing breathing nothing
I am nothing
nothing
don’t smile
don’t
no
From Guest Contributor Nick LaSorella
Dec
Teases
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
Sam is lying languid on yellow sheets. James will be home tomorrow which leaves little time for new lovers.
Sam reaches up and receives the glass and sips, as I drink from the bottle and look at scars on a wrist, tattoo marked and bled, bracelet often mislaid.
Bob Marley doesn’t give a shit, while Sam Cooke looks dispirited at what yet will come. Joplin cries wild abandon from vinyl well-worn and well earned.
And James will return and for now Sam is here and I am here and the bottle is half full and Sam teases with a fingertip…
From Guest Contributor Michael Tyler
Michael writes from a shack overlooking the ocean just south of the edge of the world. He has been published in several literary magazines and plans a short story collection sometime before the Andromeda Galaxy collides with ours and…
Nov
On The Plane
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
Passengers on a flight from Dallas to Los Angeles reportedly freaked out when they spotted a rat on board. No one airborne wants to see a rat running around. And yet…
Mel, one of the passengers, turned to the man sitting beside him.
“Mel’s the name. I’m going to a dry-cleaning convention.”
“Dry cleaning, huh?”.
Otto Franzblau had forgotten to pick up his dry cleaning before the flight. As he explained to Mel, he was giving a paper on medical laboratory experimentation in Los Angeles.
Dry-cleaning? Laboratory experiments? Could anyone blame the rat for trying to get off the plane?
From Guest Contributor David Sydney
Nov
Prose Vs Poetry
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
I watched a sentence emerge the other day at the end of a series of ambivalent decisions. The pressure of decision-making, the tense inner conversation writers conduct when writing, may be more felt than conscious, but it is nonetheless real. Even as I am writing these very words I am debating with myself whether these are the very words I should be writing. Decisions don’t make themselves. Do I use a dash here – or nothing? And what about an adjective for color or to add nuance? One misplaced brick can bring the whole thing down. Poetry flourishes on the ruins.
From Guest Contributor Howie Good
Howie is a professor emeritus at SUNY New Paltz whose newest poetry book, The Dark, is available from Sacred Parasite, a Berlin-based publisher.
Nov
Rain
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
After evensong, her steps are soft on the stairs, and I will denounce these risers with their dips in the middle; it’s been centuries; couldn’t they be repaired now, o ye archbishops? Through the light-coloured thin-glass panes, I can see the skies darkening: how am I supposed to get her home in a storm, my newly blind friend with her damnable tumour? We will be like those lost old farts in the wilderness. My friend shifts her foot towards a stair, seeking. Let the rain fall gently on us, I think; let it fall like a hymn sung in evening.
From Guest Contributor Colleen Addison
Nov
Dare To Taste
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
“Ewwww…what’s that sickening smell?”
“You wouldn’t want to know,” Jack insisted. “Can you walk faster?”
“Why?”
“You don’t want to be stopped by she who lives there,” pointed Jack.
It could’ve been dried autumn leaves rustling in the wind, but they didn’t want to take a chance by looking back. They scurried past her unkempt lawn, not noticing the silhouette of someone sitting on the front porch.
“You boys hungry? Stew’s almost ready,” a woman’s voice shrieked.
The friends pretended not to hear.
“Rumour has it that she had four husbands,” Jack murmured. “No one has seen even one.”
From Guest Contributor Krystyna Fedosejevs
Nov
Difficult Patient
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
The hearing aid specialist, Linda, clasped her hands against her cheeks.
“Mrs. Marconi, for months now I’ve shown you how to insert the hearing aids. If you’re having difficulty, we need another impression to order a new pair.”
Mrs. Marconi shifted in her seat. “No, I hear fine with these.”
Linda explained that if she’s not satisfied, then she needs to rethink her choice.
Mrs. Marconi thanked Linda and walked out.
Linda rolled her eyes and dreaded the thought of her next appointment with her.
She noted in her calendar to call in sick the day of Mrs. Marconi’s appointment.
From Guest Contributor Lisa M. Scuderi-Burkimsher
Nov
Population Statistics
by thegooddoctor in 100 Words
There are 7 billion people in the world and 7 billion rats. Both are social creatures, although people refuse to socialize with rats. The sight of a rat – at a wedding reception or restaurant, for example – upsets humans. But how about rats?…
“Rattus, did you know there are 7 billion people?”
“What?”
Two rats – Frank and Rattus – discussed the situation in an alley with overturned trash cans.
“7 billion.”
“You mean, as many as rats, Frank?”
“What’d you think of that, Rattus?”
“Look at the world, and some of those weddings and restaurants…I’m sorry to hear it, Frank.”
From Guest Contributor David Sydney