Batten down the hatches Man the barricades Prepare to defend your privilege From the grenades of the betrayed Send in water cannons Baptise the unholy few Shoot them with rubber bullets But duck if they rebound onto you Let sirens be of comfort Reclaim the streets and the ‘feds’ Then raze the estates to theContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘Barricades’”
Tag Archives: short
100-Word Fiction: ‘The Caterpillar’
It is high summer and through the oldest of urban gardens crawls the caterpillar. Which way will it turn today? It approaches a crowd of city kids, tucking into falafel and hummus. It watches them a while: a mixed, raggle-taggle bunch with hungry eyes, holding their lunch proudly, guardedly, as if it were civilisation itselfContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Caterpillar’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘He Makes a Cup of Coffee’
He makes a cup of coffee: milk, one sugar. Drinks it in the kitchen, his bathrobe loosely tied. He dresses in front of the mirror, tweaks his tie and collar. He walks through the hallway, steps out to the waiting car. He checks emails in his office, calls meetings, takes lunch. He looks at figures,Continue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘He Makes a Cup of Coffee’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘I Knew You’
I knew you for a while but not for as long as before, or after. Oh, the after, it goes on. Each summer the sunflowers and the roads. Rains in the North and the heat of the South. Mountains rise and rise. Summer. We shared those of course – a handful, a decade, just. TalkingContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘I Knew You’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘A Dream’
It came to me in a dream – woke me from my sleep – a unifying image, an idea that could take the insurgencies and economics, deaths and party politics, hopes for the future and legacies of the past, the festivals and hangovers, culture high and low, the academics and judges, phone hackers and strikers,Continue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘A Dream’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘So I Got My Head Kicked In, But I Was Asking For It (Redux version)
So I went to this dodgy pub and at the bar this fella gives me grief. But I chat to him then we’re having a laugh and he buys me a pint. Later I’m with my mates and he keeps looking over. At closing time he starts chatting again, pissed. I don’t want any aggroContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘So I Got My Head Kicked In, But I Was Asking For It (Redux version)”
100-Word Fiction: Girl Meets Boy
The young girl ran out of the hotel in tears. Her family thought it was a good job, prestigious. She earned little, like all the immigrant workers, and hoped for tips she could split between the family fund and a Friday night out. Chambermaids were suspended from work all the time, said the cleansing manager.Continue reading “100-Word Fiction: Girl Meets Boy”
100-Word Fiction: ‘The Cave’
For many years we have lived a cave. We have been chained, our heads fixed, our gaze transfixed. We have watched shadows, believing them to be real. We have heard echoes, believing them to be true. We have been entrapped by reflections of reality, thinking we understood the nature of the world and that societyContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Cave’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘That Wedding Dress’
Wearing this jacket, which bears witness to the grand public schools, the British Empire, Kipling and Kitchener, Ypres, the Somme and the Western Front, brassy medals, Chelsea bombings, fighting in Norway, Palestine, South Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans, the Order of St Patrick, the ‘Troubles’, Brian Boru, the kid cadets still named ‘mini Micks’,Continue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘That Wedding Dress’”
100-Word Fiction: ‘The Problem With Statistics’
I’m not sure if I can remember the exact amount. Bear with me. Was it 997, or 979, or 977, or 799, or 797, or 779, or maybe even 759? This number. It was hundreds. There were sevens and nines in it, definitely. Hundreds. Sevens of hundreds, I think, if I remember. Did you notContinue reading “100-Word Fiction: ‘The Problem With Statistics’”
MW Bewick 