It Never Gets Old

by Michael Seese

In late 2012, I wrote "A Lifetime Ago" for one of Janet Reid's 100-word contests. A few days later, I learned I won. Since it's 100 words, I think I can reprint it here.

The bonds we forged over a lifetime of summers...

Playing pirate with swords fashioned from Christmas wrapping paper rolls.

Seeking asylum from our sisters in your treehouse (accessible only by a really cool, real rope ratline fashioned by your dad).

Finding a family of possums, lodgers under my front porch.

Games of stickball in the street.

Discovering what the girls in our class would look like in a few years, courtesy of my big brother’s Playboy collection.

All of that came unraveling in one horrible second when you yelled, “Police! Put up your hands, Bobby!”

And I drew first.

A few months after that, I learned that Medusa's Laugh Press was looking for flash fiction for a micro book. (These are the same folks who printed my poem "The Daily Caffeine Stream" as part of a 3-D poetry book.) So I submitted "A Lifetime Ago." And it was accepted. It's taken a while, but the book is out.

Holding your book is your hands is like holding your baby. It never gets old.