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Posts by 🌴
A hospital room set
Transfers “Hello, my name is Spencer Greenwood, date of birth July 12, 1999. My primary care doctor ordered me some replacement parts for my pump, and they were shipped to a V.D.L. Enterprises warehouse, which is you guys. I want to know where it is, and—No, don’t transfer me. I’ve already been transferred four times. Please—Let me explain—I was traveling and damaged the reservoir on my pump, my primary doctor ordered me a replacement one, but did not send it to my home address. He sent it to your medical warehouse. I need to know that it arrived, and I need to make sure that it’s being sent to my correct address.—Yes.—Yes.—Do you have a tracking number?—And this has expected delivery on Wednesday?—Okay, because I cannot receive it after Wednesday.—Do you have a tracking number for me?—EightEightTwoThree….—Maybe let’s switch that to overnight. So it can arrive on Tuesday, and even if it’s late it will arrive by evening Wednesday latest, when I need to switch it out.—Yes.—Yes.—July 12, 1999. The address is FourSevenEight….—Yes. Thank you. I need to receive the shipment by Wednesday, or I’ll need to go to the hospital. It was a horrible mix-up. I’ve already spoken with my doctor. Yes, he feels horrible, but, really, I feel even worse. Thank you for understanding and helping me out. Do you have a phone number so I can call back if there are any problems tomorrow?”
Transfers
#indielit #flashfiction #writing #writer
1 day ago
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A cactus against a bare wall with harsh shadows
DISPOSAL An overturned Christmas tree juts out of a garbage can in the middle of April. I give them the benefit of the doubt: it can be easy to lose track of time amid everything else. In haste they left the string of lights and garland that shimmered in the spring sunlight. An uncanny shiver runs down my spine: I wonder where the April Christmas trees are in my life. Perhaps it’s too late to dispose of them.
Disposal
#writing #writer #indielit #flashfiction
4 days ago
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Palm tree against a gray sky
ECHOES Moisture hovers in the air around me, a suffocating, heavy stillness. Hair stands on the back of my neck—tactile electricity, like running my feet along my grandparents’ carpet. Eyes on the horizon: I’ve stood here before, there’s no reason to worry. Thunder echoes across the sky caused by lightning unseen.
5 days ago
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Generally drama / autofiction, occasionally with elements of magical realism or surrealism. I’m hoping to start developing some mystery/thriller stories .
5 days ago
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Yes!
1 week ago
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Ocean water at sunset
CALL & RESPONSE Whispering questions to cascading water. Watch it come to a boil, and pour it into a mug to clear this days-old congestion. When it’s finished, I hope to find the answers in the leaves.
Call & Response
#flashfiction #writing #writer #indielit
1 week ago
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Oranges growing on a tree
CONTRABAND My grandparents lived beside an orange orchard for a time. In my memory, I hopped the fence and strolled the neat rows of fruited orange trees, scoping routes through their branches. Choosing one, I lifted myself to the lowest-hanging branch, then the next, and the next. Reaching above me, I grabbed a plump fruit from the highest branch, then plunged my nails beneath its flesh, ripping the peel off in large chunks and letting them fall to the ground. Returning to my grandparents, juice still dripping from the sides of my mouth, my grandmother told me: “You’ll get caught one of these days.”
Contraband
#flashfiction #writing #writer #indielit
1 week ago
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Houses in a neighborhood
FOCUS To focus on a run, I’ll go without my glasses. Some may call this dangerous, but there’s a freedom in turning the world around me into passing blurs of pastel motion. The action turns meditative. Then, returning to stasis, I place the glasses on the bridge of my nose. In the corner of my eye a flash of movement. I turn my head—a neighbor leans against his balcony, blowing vape smoke into the air. His eyes are fixed on me, dripping sweat in the courtyard.
1 week ago
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RULE OF THREE I am superstitious only when it comes to the rule of three. One: an SUV comes onto the highway and begins to merge, missing my front bumper by inches. Two: a homeless woman stumbles backwards into the street. Three: a truck backing out of a driveway does not look before accelerating into the street. By the third, I considered myself lucky—I wouldn’t crash this week.
1 week ago
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Mounds of grass
CAUGHT STARING A man my age sat on a mound of grass against the trunk of a palm tree. With his hands he caressed a dog, shaking its golden-auburn ears and making faces at it. Caught staring. I rounded the corner quickly, and the man caught sight of me, suddenly leaning backwards, dropping his arms, and returning his expression to a blank stillness. An intimate moment disturbed. I would not judge him, though I could not blame him the impulse to think so.
2 weeks ago
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A shadow against a wooden fence
GOSSAMER Round the corner and past a pole—unseen by my eyes a thin gossamer hangs taut between a stop sign and a streetlight. Caught on my glasses, I wiped it away hurriedly, brushing the web in frantic movements. It’s one of my pet peeves, breaking them. There’s the worry I didn’t remove it all, or had a spider in my hair, and the knowledge that I alone destroyed its creation.
Gossamer
#flashfiction #writing #writer #indielit
2 weeks ago
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A collection of miscellaneous objects left on a sidewalk
CLATTER Stepping out of my truck I carried a water bottle, a thermos, my sunglasses, the keys, my phone, and swung my legs out onto the pavement. At that moment, the sound of falling items: keys crashing, water bottle striking the floor, vibrations thundering off the parking garage ceiling. And for a moment my heart stopped—looking down, I had dropped nothing. I stepped forward, and saw a man crouching behind my truck, clutching at his things that had fallen onto the newly painted pavement. A relief, then, that clumsiness comes to others and not only myself.
2 weeks ago
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A street lamp at dusk
ON PATIENCE All around me the sound of ticking clocks. An alarm set, a goal established, a timeline created. In this constant time-awareness a pressure builds within me. It’s in this way I am always impatient. I’d resolve to remove myself from this time crunch, but I wouldn’t know where to begin.
On Patience
#writing #writer #indielit #flashfiction
3 weeks ago
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Here’s some positive science news: researchers at MIT have shown that messenger RNA can activate a biological pathway that triggers the immune system to attack tumors.
news.mit.edu/2025/turning...
3 weeks ago
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A palm tree climbs into the air against a bright blue sky
IGUANA “I like the way they creep,” the woman beside us said. Behind her, an iguana, nearly four feet long (tail included), sauntered along the edge of the pool. Its dirty yellow claws scraped along the pavement as its reptilian limbs arced along the surface, barely a centimeter above the ground, step by step. Then, in a rush of movement, the iguana became vertical and stuck its claws into the bark of a palm tree. In a few quick strides, it climbed up to the canopy above. The tail caught on a browning, dead palm frond that swiftly fell to the ground below.
3 weeks ago
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A quiet street
STREAMS For ambience, as they put it, my parents prefer to watch security camera live streams on YouTube. We had planned a family trip to the Florida Keys, and in anticipation, they watched, daily, the live footage of Duval Street. They knew which bars left their TVs on all night. They knew how often the public trash cans were emptied. It became a part of their routine to monitor the routine of a town and people they did not know.
4 weeks ago
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