A community-wide celebration of literature, human creativity, and storytelling.
The Brooks Memorial Library and Oscar Heller are excited to announce the launch of the 1st Annual Brattleboro Miniature Masterpiece Flash Fiction Competition. Writers of all ages are invited to craft original works of fiction of 50 words or fewer.
After working all day, she hurried to City Hall, holiday lights shimmering like promises waiting to be kept. Taxis rushed past, indifferent. Worry tightened her chest. A stranger leaned from a cab and said, gently, “Share this?” She accepted, grateful. Years later, she still remembers him as her first blessing.
“I missed this,” she says. “Just you and me and the trees.”
The trees. She always includes the trees. If she knew how easily I’d trade every tree in this forest for one second of her wanting me the way I want her.
But she doesn’t know.
She can’t know.
She herds the sheep
She drives the cattle
She feeds the horses
And chases the geese
Ill, Ma sleeps
Father gone
She never thought
Ma would get better
But she was wrong
How lucky she feels
Ma’s proud of me
You’re strong says Ma
And I know I am
August planted her feet on the rocking surface of the boat; she clung onto the edge. Looking behind her, she could see the shrinking docks. She could feel the cold wind rush through her hair. This was the feeling she always loved. The seemingly endless ocean and the glowing horizon.