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.
