Browsing Category 1000 Stories

I am on a mission to write 1,000 100 word stories. Here is the full collection. Once a day, every day, or a doctor’s note!

watching you sleep – 105/1000

when i wake up i just lay there and wait
for you, for you to roll toward me and
stretch out your arm so i can roll into you

and while i’m waiting, yes, sometimes
i watch you sleep, don’t be surprised,
there are songs about doing this
we played them to each other
once upon another time

and i think it’s just wondrous
the way your eyelashes shine
in the morning light, and your face
looks so peaceful and sweet

i think you’d be surprised
to know how much i really love you,
i think you’d be kinder, too

when you’re 90 – 104/1000

the prayer cards they give you at wakes 
pile up near the stack of mail that there’s
no point in opening – you’re 90, quit
paying the bills, quit every damn thing
you don’t want to be doing with the time
you have left. you’ve had enough
worry over money and people and time,
you’ve iced bruises and wiped tears
and shit, thanking god for every 
thankless minute before your celebration.
your heart’s been broken, but you’ve
known all the greatest kinds of love,
and there’s a luckiness there that so
few people have the chance to taste at all.… Read the rest

it’s hell, but… – 103/1000

The Morning War. Heat. Cigarettes. 
You know it’s going to be a bad day
when the Times just gives up and says 
it’s hell, but we’ll keep on reporting
until we’re hanged in the streets like
traitors to our country 

Oh, how I would love to be able
to afford being a traitor to my country.
To ditch work, hold signs, protest,
knock on doors, drive people to polls.

But I am the people we’re trying to help
and it does no one any good to listen
to me whine that we’re a broken society
that might never be … Read the rest

he’s here, don’t worry – 102/1000

it’s okay to get out of bed early, you don’t have to worry anymore
about missing out on cuddles and special time together, he’s here,
and from what you can see (the photos, the driver’s license, the
clothes in the closet) you should probably believe he will stay.
don’t worry so much about being left alone, not any time soon, and
not any more than any other woman would worry about 
the man she loves walking out the door in the morning and 
not coming back through at night. don’t be scared,
just believe he is here to love you.… Read the rest

pay attention – 101/1000

pay attention, they tell me, pay attention to the things you hear
like the birds singing, or coffee shop chatter, or crying 
and if I pay attention, they tell me, I’ll contain multitudes

multitudes of words drown me like the rising tide and
I can’t keep my head above water so the words are swallowed
and then they lift me buoyantly back to life 

there they go, floating along the waves, the words 
are boats that steer themselves and I just have to 
pay attention as they pass as if writing poetry were that easy

pay attention, they tell me… Read the rest

eternally – 100/1000


“I’ll love you forever.”

“Well, I think forever is a bit too long,” she said, peeling a patch of his greenish skin off his shoulder as they talked.

“But I can be with you forever,” he said.

She touched his face and then grimaced when more skin fell away at her touch, he was rotting right before her eyes.

“I don’t think you’re going to be here much longer, babe,” she said.

“It doesn’t matter what I look like, does it?”

“Well, not so much, but you need to be all in one piece.”

“I think I lost a piece.”… Read the rest

hush – 99/1000

“We don’t have enough to form a coven,” the old witch snarled.

“We will, look, she’s right over there.”

“You mean to take some girl enjoying her day in the park and bring her over to us?”

“What choice do we have? We’ll grab her and drag her into the woods, it would take seconds.”

“But someone might see us!”

“We have a demon to conjure! Now, do as I say and go get that girl!”

The old witch dashed into the field and dragged back the girl.

“I put a hush spell on her.”

“Smartest thing you’ve done today.”… Read the rest

not today, bride – 98/1000


There she stood in her white dress with her father on her arm, a beautiful bouquet of flowers in her hands.

It was her wedding day, the day she had spent her whole life waiting for, and now the time had finally come.

All of the planning, all of the anticipation, the wait was finally over and she was a bride, and about to be a wife.

She was about to be this man’s wife.

The doors opened, the music played, and she walked forward, but no one in the room stood and all was quiet.

He hadn’t shown up.… Read the rest

leaving – 97/1000


We have had enough of these goodbyes.

Remember when they were tearful, but full of love, hugs, kisses, the kind of goodbyes you don’t want to suffer through?

Maybe I liked those better than the quiet quitting of our relationship, the way you just backed out like you didn’t feel like going to the game.

A game is all I’ve ever felt like, a person being played, a pawn in someone else’s life.

She doesn’t fit here, go there.

No, that’s not right, either, move here.

Until I’m knocked off the board, and you’re picking up the pieces and leaving.… Read the rest