#fiftywords

[fiftywords]

451

Henry woke up an anachronism, the sun peeping through the wrong window. When he looked out he saw a valley of clouds with mountains hanging overhead. Ominous shadows. He longed to sleep again, to wake up one last time. And the love of his life. What had happened to her?

[fiftywords]

things i forget

The way you always put up a fight. The braid in your hair, the freckles over your nose, the soft in your neck. The way you begged me to stay. The way you held my face that night. The way your ankles are, the way they hold your naked feet.

[fiftywords]

now

This moment in time—you, now, like a drop on the water before it winks away. This is the moment before you die in that thick of woods, in that room of your house, in that shirt. This is that moment after you came back to life, screaming for joy.

[fiftywords]

the bullet

One night I felt the bullet fall into my hand. I imagined it coming to fill that need, to make a hole and fill it up again. Like friends forever. I’d lie back in eternity, my mind clutching the cylinder of truth. I wouldn’t even have to leave a note.

[fiftywords]

music box

He saw her dance just the one time. She had practiced for him in his kitchen, chassé chassé chassé fouetté. She turned like in a music box, in a solemn grace that kept him quiet for long after. Did you like it. She looked so still as she moved.

[fiftywords]

the hope no. 2

When I wake up, I'm on the moon, my last breath leaving me like a ghost. From here I see the world like a snow globe draped in dark. A bright fingertip in the black like hope pushing through. Some say the oceans hold all the sorrows in the world.

[fiftywords]

breaker

Everyone said you'd break my heart, she said. Everyone told me to stay away. I couldn't tell her the truth: how we'd fight in New York, how she'd return the dress I bought her, how she'd leave a mark I couldn't wash away. How she broke me in the end.

[fiftywords]

i wouldn’t

I wish I could go back. I wouldn't tell you I loved you in the parked car. I wouldn't wait outside your window as it winked out. I wouldn't die in your arms while the sun looked in. I used to believe in you. I used to believe in me.