May 8, 2023

Bess Recalls the Great Depression

By Kathryn Silver-Hajo

She paints WPA-inspired scenes of fishermen and farm hands, the frame shop on Flatbush a ruckus of wood and wire, tools and nails. Syd measures, hammers, curses. Bess regales with tales of bill collectors pounding the front door while they tiptoed out the back. Our Tom-and-Jerry routine, she sighs.

About the Author

Kathryn Silver-HajoKathryn Silver-Hajo is a 2023 Pushcart Prize, Best Small Fictions, and Best American Food Writing nominee. Her stories appear or are forthcoming in Atticus Review, The Citron Review, CRAFT, Emerge Literary Journal, New Flash Fiction Review, Pithead Chapel, Ruby Literary, and others. Kathryn’s flash collection Wolfsong and novel Roots of The Banyan Tree are forthcoming in 2023. She reads for Fractured Lit. More at: kathrynsilverhajo.com; twitter.com/KSilverHajo; instagram.com/kathrynsilverhajo

Related Flash
Rusted metal plate

Mulberries

By Jon Doughboy

“June in the rustbelt and we’re raving drunkenly down the street trying to catch mulberries in our mouths as they fall, chomp chomp chomp their bloody juice and save them from the sidewalk.”

Three black balloons

No Clapping

By Sean Ennis

“Today the class was told, no clapping! It is simply too loud, and there isn’t that much to celebrate. The sound baffles match our school colors, but they are ineffective. The antique windows rattle with applause. If you came here to be congratulated, I’ve got news for you. But if you came here, you’re in the right place.”

glass container filled with ice

Eulogy in Pigtown

By Craig Kirchner

“Sober Monday mornings we discussed Kafka, Sartre, and you. Champagne on ice in case you visited, knowing you wouldn’t. In between sets you read poems.”

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This