Tag: reading

Kelli reread the letter inviting her to gather five “things” that she wanted out of her life forever. Gone from ever existing. She had two weeks to gather these things, items, documents, whatever she chose. They would be placed into a huge fire and all traces would be gone forever. Kaput. Finito. She immediately considered … Continue reading Into the Fire by Linda Freedland

I am sure someone will write about throwing poverty, hunger, disease, racial injustice and war into a fire. It certainly would be nice to obliterate them. Since I am sure someone will write about these things more eloquently than I could ever do, I will tell you the five things in my life that I … Continue reading My Personal Camelot by June Hannay Kosier

THE END We had had a most narrow escape. We had broken away, and Holly wanted a fire to destroy all of the vestiges, all of the memories, all of the fear and anguish, the insecurities and self doubt that had repressed her soul under a black magic. She wanted a conflagration to consume the … Continue reading Rookery, The End by Edward Pontacoloni

This prompt reminded me immediately of a little-known story by Nathanial Hawthorne, ‘Earth’s Holocaust.’ Originally published in Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine in May 1844, it was collected into Mosses from an Old Manse two years later. In this story, set interestingly “once upon a time – but whether in the time past or time … Continue reading Hawthorne’s Earth’s Holocaust by Duane L. Herrmann

Normally I do not think of things to destroy, however as I contemplated this prompt, I see some disturbing things circling around that should be obliterated.1. The virus that our president is saying is nothing more than the flu, has taken 211,000 and more, lives. Families and friends have been separated from one -another because … Continue reading What To Throw Into the Fire by Mary Perrin Scott

I pull my hood up and tug on the strings to tighten it around my face, a futile effort in this incessantly hissing wind. The fire in front of me is low; I built it from scratch without accelerants except a few miraculous scraps of birch bark. Collecting wood for the fire was difficult, the … Continue reading Re-boot by Jenny Curtis

The roots of the tree reached deep into the earth’s core, each connected to a blazing inferno of molten iron, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, silicon and sulfur, a combination of elements that incinerated the requests that came to them, but the little girls didn’t notice. They focused, instead, on playing house, building a tree house, in … Continue reading The Tree House by Kathy Barlow

1. Prejudice2. Bigotry3. Racism4. Ignorance5. Disease

The Northcountry Center for Ideological Cleansing at the Rookery in St. Frederick, New York, yesterday announced an astonishing new discovery that has enthused the pseudo scientific world with googled wonderment. Doctor Zorba Kildeere, the famed bioanthropsychist, has proclaimed the discovery to be a “real zeitgeist changer.”  As a reporter for Adirondack Stream Media, I went … Continue reading OXYTOCIN by Edward Pontacoloni