Skip to content
Menu
One Word Logo v2
  • One Word Blog
  • Flash Fiction
  • All The Words
  • Bio
  • Bluesky
One Word Logo v2

Flash Fiction Archive XI

Flash Fiction Home
Archive XII – Oct-Dec 2025
Archive XI – Apr-Oct 2025
Archive X – Jan-Apr 2025
Archive IX – Nov-Dec 2024
Archive VIII – Apr-Nov 2024
Archive VII – Jan-Apr 2024
Archive VI – Sept-Dec 2023
Archive V – Apr-Sept 2023
Archive IV – Jan-Apr 2023
Archive III – Oct-Dec 2022
Archive II – Aug-Oct 2022
Archive I – Jul-Aug 2022

 

His eyes must be going, Ed thought, but when he looked around at everyone else waiting for the bus, he could see them clearly; their umbrellas, watches, phones. It was just the man in the grey raincoat who was a #blur, standing there, facing him, hands in pockets, ignored by everyone else. #vss365

— Lee Zanello (@lima-zulu.bsky.social) October 1, 2025 at 8:33 AM

 

The older I get, the more I realize that the good life is truly about spending as much time as possible with the people who #laugh at the same things as you. #vss365

— Lee Zanello (@lima-zulu.bsky.social) August 10, 2025 at 8:23 AM

 

Even the insects are quiet at moonset and I let my memories twirl. I saw a #sparrow today; seems I always see one when I need to be reminded of you, of what you told me once in a whisper at a wedding. “Circles, everything is circles.” Today was tough, but it’s done. Just another circle. #vss365

— Lee Zanello (@lima-zulu.bsky.social) July 28, 2025 at 8:37 AM

 

The conversation falls quiet, as it can with old friends, and we watch a leaf drift by the dock. Summer is fleeting, here. You ask what colour my life has been, and I think and say yellow, bright, happy. For you, you say #crimson and, like the leaf, we remember the attachments you’ve lost. #vss365

— Lee Zanello (@lima-zulu.bsky.social) July 26, 2025 at 10:02 AM

 

When we were last #together, we swam in the reflection of the stars, rippling flirtations tearing the Milky Way asunder. You told me your heart had pieces everywhere; I said I’d kept mine whole. Now, when the water is still, I wonder where you are and which part of your heart you’re with. #vss365

— Lee Zanello (@lima-zulu.bsky.social) July 25, 2025 at 8:10 AM

 

𝐀 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐊𝐞𝐩𝐭 She’s taken up residence under my skin, I can feel her there, chuckling, wriggling, moving through sinew and muscle. I twitch as she plays games, shifting to avoid my pin pricks, the holes I make for her to evaporate out of. She’d told me she’d never leave me. #vss365 #promise

— Lee Zanello (@lima-zulu.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 9:17 AM

 

She’d learned to #mellow in her old age; trading eye of newt for earl grey and baking bread, not children. The sun shone again in her little corner of the woods and birds reappeared, her cat too fat to chase them. The villagers still whispered witch, but softer, like a bedtime name. #vss365

— Lee Zanello (@lima-zulu.bsky.social) July 17, 2025 at 7:32 AM

 

She hummed an old lullaby on the porch swing as her grandson, eyes wide with #innocence, looked up at her lovingly. He sipped his juice box and offered her some, but she declined with a smile. His mom came out and, seeing him alone, sat next to him and told him she had some bad news. #vss365

— Lee Zanello (@lima-zulu.bsky.social) July 16, 2025 at 7:57 AM

 

We have more than one ghost. The footsteps in the attic differ from the moaning walls in the basement. They’ve come to a head in the pantry, and when a spiritual #skirmish leaves the cereal spilled and cans dented, we hear them cry. They’re like us, they fight and forget. They are us. #vss365

— Lee Zanello (@lima-zulu.bsky.social) July 10, 2025 at 8:24 AM

 

The twitch, as it came to be known, the one #moment everyone on Earth all experienced the same minute over again, answered every question we’d ever had about ourselves, and gave us just as many questions we’d never thought to ask. #vss365

— Lee Zanello (@lima-zulu.bsky.social) June 27, 2025 at 9:29 AM

 

The twitch, as it came to be known, the one #moment everyone on Earth all experienced the same minute over again, answered every question we’d ever had about ourselves, and gave us just as many questions we’d never thought to ask. #vss365

— Lee Zanello (@lima-zulu.bsky.social) June 27, 2025 at 9:28 AM

 

Deep in the boggy murk, a madman mutters, stitching together leaves and fronds, naming them, jumbling them about. Those who share the names twirl through their lives in #parallel, following their “gut” instincts. Neither the madman, nor the twirlers, know how tangled they truly are. #vss365

— Lee Zanello (@lima-zulu.bsky.social) June 20, 2025 at 7:01 AM

 

We’ve lost touch with nature, the owl-child says. We’ve traded the #susurrus of the tree winds for the hum of the power lines. The stars no longer light the sky, whispers mum. Our screens wash them away, but we remember they are there and, if you listen, you can still hear the leaves. #vss365

— Lee Zanello (@lima-zulu.bsky.social) June 17, 2025 at 7:14 AM

 

The lights hummed as he drifted between thought and memory. Youth had clung to him once, reckless and loud; a natural #immunity from any consequences. Now, skateboard wheels clicked in time to the machines, sunburnt shoulders cooled by the linens, first kisses danced into darkness. #vss365

— Lee Zanello (@lima-zulu.bsky.social) May 15, 2025 at 8:03 AM

 

#Karma is behind you always, stalking from the shadows, stepping in your footprints, recording your mistruths, waiting for you to misstep so it can catch up to you, whisper your name so softly that only you can hear it, letting you know it’s there and that it’s time has almost come. #vss365

— Lee Zanello (@lima-zulu.bsky.social) May 2, 2025 at 7:33 AM

 

Brian was always four weeks ahead and pre-scheduled his weekly #newsletter. We’d been hearing from a dead man for a month. Re-reading those last editions, on topics like worry, guilt and stress, took on new meaning, as if death itself had granted the words a wisdom they hadn’t held before. #vss365

— Lee Zanello (@lima-zulu.bsky.social) April 26, 2025 at 8:47 AM

 

That old #place is time-twisted, the locals warn as we fill up the gas. They shake their heads as we pull away. We follow the road up to the cabin your uncle left us. The structure leans, lights flicker inside. We open the door and he’s there, your uncle, but younger. Inside, it’s 1978. #vss365

— Lee Zanello (@lima-zulu.bsky.social) April 21, 2025 at 7:49 AM

 

 

 

 

Older Posts – Archive X | Newer Posts – Archive XII

Latest Posts

  • StillNovember 25, 2025
  • NutsMarch 1, 2025
  • First DraftJanuary 12, 2025
  • RetreatAugust 17, 2024
  • AnalogApril 20, 2024

One Word Newsletter

Please consider joining the One Word Newsletter List for site and career updates.
 
You will receive one email newsletter per month (maximum) and all attempts to make it entertaining will be made.
 
Your information will never be sold or disclosed to third parties and if fourth parties come snooping around, asking questions, rubbing their grubby little hands together and smelling as if they have just come out of some Dickensian London back alley, I will say that I have never even heard of you.

Contact email: leezanello at gmail dot com

©2026 leezanello.com | Powered by WordPress and Superb Themes!