The allure of microfiction is that I can write quickly and imagine that I’ve written well. Here’s a little piece that I may submit to a competition, “Stories for the end of the decade.”. I wrote it in twenty minutes, and most of that was spent getting it down to exactly 100 words, so I imagine they’re going to be swamped with entries.

Tulum

Your hand runs along ancient stone. You contemplate this forgotten polity, once ascendant. These walls were defended with the blood of countless people.

You. What brought you here? A feed sparked your interest, maybe. You let your browser book a flight.

You ponder the gulf that separates you from your brothers, the ones who gasped, dying on this wall. You try to divine their minds in the hieroglyphic curl of pelican wingtips, see their gods in the gathering clouds.

You think of those who will come after you. Not long, you imagine. You hope they will see you more clearly.

Related Posts:

• Blood Pen (January, 2008)
• Overheard on Caltrain (February, 2006)
• Obama: So Close, So Far (January, 2008)
• Why I Hate Tom Friedman (September, 2006)
• Live from Goma (August, 2007)

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 5:25 pm and is filed under doomsaying, personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.