-
The pile of vinyl records dropped one Frank Sinatra album onto the turntable. He crooned about Strangers in the Night, and I smiled in my sleep. The needle skipped and Snoopy and the Red Barron were fighting it out in the sky. The needle jumped to Bolero, it pranced around in my head, and a…
-
Shunning is done with silent delight.
-
It wasn’t the right plant for the right place like she’d hoped.
-
It was a monumental act of kindness.
-
I bought the perfect shoes to wear to my niece’s wedding. They were black leather with an inch and a half kitten heel. Just above the heel was a gold plate that made me glisten when I walked. But I didn’t have a dress, so I made one. I haven’t done any real sewing, not…
-
“Your ideas are weird. We don’t want to play with you anymore,” said first grader Selene to first grader me. We were writing a script for a play everyone didn’t know they already knew the words to. They were such babies. I figured the first grade debacle was just frustration over writing the script, and…
-
She twirled and emerged from the rose that was her dress. The petals, layers of dark crimson velvet and rose red chiffon fell around her pirouettes and toe shoes. She leapt through the air. All eyes were on her. Grace and glory. A vision of beauty in time and space, she couldn’t have been more…
-
He wasn’t sure he could stay up that late. It was a fluke that he was awake at this hour.
-
When I got to college the world changed.
-
The lights went low and laser lights, mirror balls, black lights, and neon blazed.
-
Fall, Flail, or Fly?
Photo by Tasha Marie To be or not to be. fall, flail, or fly? Ribs tight and hard, stomach in knots. I don’t even see the setting sun, there are no colors left in the grey of dusk. The ocean laps and pounds the jutting rock on which I stand. I pull my hair to… Read more
-
Wet Produce
Image generated with AI. Grocery shopping is a necessary evil. I don’t like shopping in the first place, and spending an exorbitant amount of money on sustenance seems like a sin. Life is so expensive, it doesn’t need to be so annoying to get the things I need and want. Ordering groceries online for pickup… Read more
-
Word Wednesday: Whalesong from “chord, note, Baltic, crowd, bronze, odor”
AI generated image. “I never thought I’d be standing on the deck of a cruise ship in the middle of the Baltic sea listening to whale songs, The notes and chords from their throats are stuff I only dreamed about,” Madeline watched the fog move over the waves. The famous clicks and moans of the… Read more
-
Hateful Liberation
Mom and Dad were the loves of each other’s lives. They found each other during summers when Mom went to Clay county to visit her grandparents. Their love for each other never changed. Even after they divorced thirty-two years later after dad met and had an affair with CH, the most despicable woman I’d ever… Read more
-
Tincher’s Store
AI generated image. Tincher’s Store and Post Office was the train station once. It stood not a hundred feet from the railroad tracks, and its wide wooden porch doubled as a bus stop in the pouring rain. We had no idea how long ago it stopped being a train station, it was half a mile… Read more
-
The pile of vinyl records dropped one Frank Sinatra album onto the turntable. He crooned about Strangers in the Night, and I smiled in my sleep. The needle skipped and Snoopy and the Red Barron were fighting it out in the sky. The needle jumped to Bolero, it pranced around in my head, and a…
-
Shunning is done with silent delight.
-
It wasn’t the right plant for the right place like she’d hoped.
-
It was a monumental act of kindness.
-
I bought the perfect shoes to wear to my niece’s wedding. They were black leather with an inch and a half kitten heel. Just above the heel was a gold plate that made me glisten when I walked. But I didn’t have a dress, so I made one. I haven’t done any real sewing, not…
-
“Your ideas are weird. We don’t want to play with you anymore,” said first grader Selene to first grader me. We were writing a script for a play everyone didn’t know they already knew the words to. They were such babies. I figured the first grade debacle was just frustration over writing the script, and…
-
She twirled and emerged from the rose that was her dress. The petals, layers of dark crimson velvet and rose red chiffon fell around her pirouettes and toe shoes. She leapt through the air. All eyes were on her. Grace and glory. A vision of beauty in time and space, she couldn’t have been more…
-
He wasn’t sure he could stay up that late. It was a fluke that he was awake at this hour.
-
When I got to college the world changed.
-
The lights went low and laser lights, mirror balls, black lights, and neon blazed.
-
Spiders, Flies, and Coffee
“Spiders, Flies, and Coffee” a Quirky Flash Fiction Piece by Devonne Brown Published in Chewers and Masticadores, April 29, 2025
-
Well, you never asked…
Your eyes filled with tears-Why didn’t you let me help?Well, you never asked.Can I come as well?I’m bouncing from foot to foot.Well, you never asked.Why don’t you join meSwinging arms, walking, skipping?Well, you never asked. Well, you never asked….is a statement about you or me. I could make it all about me, or all about…
-
Longing: 2 Haiku
Longing: 1 HaikuClosing my eyes andWanting what hasn’t been gainedSmiling wistfullyLonging: 2 HaikuSpending time aloneI rub my hand o’r my heartA weight in my chest
-
Thank you, Mr. Sullivan
I suppose the Appalachian tradition of giving kids weird names, Stanley Hugo, Ervin Otto, or even Oral Homer was part and parcel of growing up in the isolation of the hollers. I was the last of the kids to get a holler name before we moved out to the suburbs, I suppose.My brother got stuck…
-
Report Card
My son is judging me. If he were to give me a report card it would be how long do I stay awake when I come home from school, how much time do I spend writing, how often and well do I cook for him, how clean do I keep my room, how clean do…
Devonne Brown 