Tag: #FFFC

Flash Fiction, tutto e niente

For the Best

Tina Stewart Brakebill

Molly watched and wondered.

Mama always told her it was for the best. They weren’t really captives. It was for protection. They’d hurt themselves or others if they were free.

But still, Molly wondered. Were they happy? Sad? Were they envious? Did they know they weren’t free? Or was mama right and they didn’t even understand those ideas?

One of the little ones followed Molly with its eyes and just for a moment Molly felt a connection. Maybe it did understand. She squirmed a bit at that thought. Maybe mama was right and this was the best thing for them. But still. That look.

Maybe she’d get closer. Try again.

But just then, she heard her mama’s call sing out and she shook off her doubt. Mama would never lie to her.

“Mama must be right. It’s all for the best.”

Already thinking about feeding time, she turned tail and swam away.

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Thanks to Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge.

Haiku & Other Poetry, tutto e niente

the bells of spring

Tina Stewart Brakebill

As I say below, this piece was written originally on April 9, 2020 for Sue’s WritePhoto challenge. Today seemed an apt time to revisit it. Thanks to Fandango’s Flashback Friday Challenge

a shower of blue

upon a blanket of green

spring’s carillon song

blue

Thanks Sue. Visit her for details on the #writephoto challenge and other great pieces.

Flash Fiction, Haiku & Other Poetry, tutto e niente

quixotic musings

Tina Stewart Brakebill

Am I a dreamer?

Still full of hope as I yearn.      

Or am I a clown?

Yes, says the face in the glass

with your destiny foretold.  

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Image courtesy of Forgottenx at DeviantArt

I’m not sure that this piece fits perfectly into any of the challenges that inspired me today. So apologies if I’ve miscategorized things!

All I can say, is that the combination of Fandango’s FOWC (body, which I loosely subbed in “face in the mirror”),  Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge photo, and Sammi’s Challenge (to use the word quixotic, which I took as the entire theme) DID inspire me and, thus, this 26-word call and response story / tanka was born. (Side note: I love to throw in a good THUS or THEREFORE or NEVERTHELESS ….)

Flash Fiction, tutto e niente

Time

Tina Stewart Brakebill

Time has lost all meaning. Had it been one year? Twenty years? One hundred? More? She had stopped trying to count the days long ago. But she had believed–really believed–she’d be able to note the seasons. Hoping to mark the years. Imagining she’d be able to picture their faces as time passed.

She had wanted to be prepared. Be ready for the day when this ended. To not flinch when she saw her mother’s weary eyes and her father’s body wracked by time. To smile when her baby brother gazed down on her instead of reaching up for a hug. To love what is instead of mourning what was lost.

But the light was funny and she got confused. Never knowing whether she had slept for moment or a day or more. So she lost track of the seasons. Couldn’t count the years. She still felt as if she was waiting. Hoping. But she was no longer sure why. Or what she was hoping for.

For him to save her?

For an axe to end the lingering hope?

For a fire to burn them both to ash and scatter their doomed love into the wind?

For time to end?

The light was growing dim again. Perhaps she’d sleep for a moment. She could think about this another time. That was one thing she knew.

There was always more time.

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The image is provided by Janek-Sedlar at DeviantArt and shared thanks to Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge.

Thanks!! I needed a kick in the butt to write some FF.

Flash Fiction, Haiku & Other Poetry, tutto e niente

his first barber

Tina Stewart Brakebill
boy sitting trimmed by man holding scissor
Photo by Thgusstavo Santana on Pexels.com

no more comic books

or picturing his first shave

no more sneaking drinks

or pretending not to hear

two ten main street is no more

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Thanks to Fandango for the thought-provoking photo. It reminded me of the sad Covid-19 reality that some things may never come back. Not sure why my mind went to barbershops, but … it did. So here’s my story that’s also a poem or poem that’s also a story? You get the idea!

Stay safe! Where a mask. Be a kind human person. We’re all going thought something.