When I'm adrift in getting longer pieces done, I like writing "CNF Tweets", short, tweet-length flash fictions. Creative NonFiction ran a #CnfTweet challenge of sorts on the them of #TheHeart during the week before Valentine's Day. I submitted several, one of which — my entry from Feb 10 — I was pleased to see made it into the magazine's newsletter.
Here's my "suite" of CNF Tweets on the the subject:
- Feb 8 The Indian scholar’s face beamed onscreen alongside 24 other animated squares holding eager faces. "Focus on the lotus in the heart as a daily practice for joy,” he said. I gasped, but it wasn't due to an awakening: The cat on my lap had just flexed her claws.
- Feb 9 He turned away, his face a profile in stone, his decision made before she'd finished speaking. Every cell in her body was alert, like that time tide-pooling, when the anemone curled inwards after she touched a tentacle, its sting more exciting than painful.
- Feb 10 I dried my tears and went for a walk, my heart still ragged. Around a park, through open space and home via the slow street. Despite my hurt, signs of life were everywhere. Kinglets flitted, dogs wagged and a hawk flew across my path, showing the way: forward.*
- Feb 11 “There you are!” she said. It had been a year since they last talked but it could have been a day. Instantly they were laughing, like the day they met, riding up the pass, surrounded by blue skies, snowy peaks and columbine, their friendship already a fact.
- Feb 12 He showed up in a dream first. That woke her up and turned her toward him. She'd passed him by for months, his worried brow putting her off. Then she saw, no felt, he, his heart, was right there. She left a note in his helmet. Then he was right at her door. — Deborah Crooks
*editors pick