100-Word Fiction: ‘Beaches’

As large and smooth as the rocks jutting through the sand, sleek and blue-black as polished granite on top; fleshy and white underneath, they were found on beaches within days of each other, their long, beakish mouths agape in now endless smiles. Seven metres nose to tail, lying inert near to the poster-paint splash ofContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Beaches’”

100-Word Fiction: ‘Kepler 2’

I am still out there, spinning. I don’t want to shackle the sun. That desire is gone. But gravitational pull is good and every day needs lit, surely. There are smaller stars: brighter clusters of light with common origins and achievable distances. I have spotted them in the ecliptic plane. I had never seen themContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Kepler 2’”

100-Word Fiction: ‘The Storm of St Lou’

Yeah can you get some now now Hear it comin’ yeah yeah Howlin’ howlin’ oh yeah howl howl All the way and back and down down Down the line now baby Oh come on now keep it yeah Storm is raising Storm is raising Storm is raising Can you hear it rainin’ rain rain WhistleContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Storm of St Lou’”

100-Word Fiction: ‘A Slow News Week’

A slow news week. A slow news week. A slow news week. A slow news week. A slow news week. Rent a smaller home. A slow news week. A slow news week. A slow news week. A slow news week. A slow news week. Wear a warmer jumper. A slow news week. A slow newsContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘A Slow News Week’”

100-Word Fiction: ‘Perspectives’

Daddy. Who was not where? Beards at the kitchen table. Dad. Ties styled wide to thin. A holiday in Somerset, golden evenings and tractors. A rainy motorway and shouting. Father travels first-class now. Him and Vic. Vic Benson is important. An important name. To me. I went away. So did dad. Pinstripes blurred. Dad tookContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Perspectives’”

100-Word Fiction: ‘Freedom Fruit’

They lift from the hedgerow Light as cobweb and spun sugar A shroud of lace for a season’s going Displaced migrants, the bramble’s other Temporary lover: Jenny Long Legs rise in a cloud In pestilent numbers this September As hands shake the limbs of briar For black berries and rose hips On foraging trips. PeaceContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Freedom Fruit’”

100-Word Fiction: ‘Autumn Passings’

It’s when, these mornings, that someone passes in the road and says hello and I don’t know what to do, and I clam up, or I hang my head slightly and whisper Hi, or Alright?, like the sullen teenager I was. And I wonder why I can’t reply confidently, head up, even now, after theseContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Autumn Passings’”

100-Word Fiction: ‘They Wrote His Obituary’

I am told that Robert had been a radical. He certainly shirked definition, never committed to anything. I’m not sure that makes someone a radical, just an arch-critic, a cynic, a difficult bastard. Others say genius; I’d argue a fantastic populist. They say he was an intellectual; he was simply willing to share his viewsContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘They Wrote His Obituary’”

100-Word Fiction: ‘Sometimes When’

Sometimes when it feels to her as if everyone is waiting for some small event to breathe life into a suffocating world, she is found attending to memories. She tries to catch absences as they arrive; the past as it claims the present; the futures that crumble at a touch; the goings as they’re coming.Continue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Sometimes When’”