THE MICRO-FICTION SHOWCASE 2007

The Micro-Fiction Showcase was a three month long celebration of the shortest literary form. These micro-fiction competitions ran monthly through-out the summer of 2007 and were for very, very short stories and short poems. The winners will appear in the 2008 Fish Anthology!

Below you will find the winners and runners-up in all three Micro-Fiction Showcase competitions. And, for the first time, Fish Folk were able to help us decide on the two final winners: one short poem and one very short story.

The final winners are:

The Offering

Bruise your eyes upon these words.
Snatched from the streets.
Dusty. Stony, chipped. Or sharp-edged shards. Discarded.
Collected.
Fingered. Sorted. Tenderly treasured.
Then shyly laid before you:
A child's clumsy offering..

G.S. Westfield - Florida, USA

 

AND

Don't Just Lie There

"...and another thing. I've had to look after the stupid dog! And your goldfish." Her eyes glittered with emotion as she counted off on her fingers. "Bills to pay, meals to cook, the kids always screaming for something, the shower's broken," she looked down at him, "and you just lie there, doing nothing."

Her tears dropped gently on his headstone.

Andrew Irvine - London, England

 

 

The Micro-Fiction Showcase is sponsored by E-FASTNET WEB DESIGN

(The June Winners) (The July Winners) (The August Winners)

Winners - August Micro-Fiction Showcase 2007

Each winner receives €25 and a copy of the Fish Anthology 2007 and goes forward to the grand final to win €500 in each category together with a personal web-site sponsored by E-Fastnet Design.

 

 

The Blue Donkey

Sometimes I feel most impressionable
Sometimes even surreal
But today I feel like a painting by Chagall
without perspective
naïve

Cliona O'Connell Dublin, Ireland

Mortal Thoughts

Someone who was alive when you started reading this story is now dead.

Marie-Suzanne Altzinger - Dublin, Ireland

 

The Offering

Bruise your eyes upon these words.
Snatched from the streets.
Dusty. Stony, chipped. Or sharp-edged shards. Discarded.
Collected.
Fingered. Sorted. Tenderly treasured.
Then shyly laid before you:
A child's clumsy offering..

G.S. Westfield - Florida, USA

Humoresque

As the maestro flips his coat-tails over the back of the piano stool I insinuate a packet of cheesy snacks and retire to savour the sound of hemidemisemiquavers.

Michael Greenhough - Cardiff, Wales

Zodiac

Pointy, Goaty, Splashy, Fishy,
Horny, Snorty, Copy, Nippy,
Catty, Titty, Weighty, Stingy.

Jo Evans - East Kilbride, Scotland

 

Up Before the Judge

The four defendants had been found guilty of stealing fifty thousand Viagra tablet with a street value of a hundred thousand pounds. Summing up, the judge said it was clear the men were hardened criminals and that all the evidence against them had stood up in court. He therefore had no option but to impose stiff sentences.

Gordon Williams - Enniskillen, Northern Ireland

Waht?

At frsit sghit tihs peom
May seem imosspbile to raed
Athluogh as soon as you aemttpt it
You will esilay scceued.
And fnid you udnersatnd it
Adn aslo taht it ryhems.
Touhgh it mghit mkae you dzizy
If you raed it mnay tmies.

Pete Cole, Bath, England

Don't Just Lie There

"...and another thing. I've had to look after the stupid dog! And your goldfish." Her eyes glittered with emotion as she counted off on her fingers. "Bills to pay, meals to cook, the kids always screaming for something, the shower's broken," she looked down at him, "and you just lie there, doing nothing."

Her tears dropped gently on his headstone.

Andrew Irvine - London, England

Dew

dew drops on grass blades
green swords slicing perfect spheres
rainbows shattering

Kirsty Robertson - Beara, Ireland

Mr Dumpty's Diary

"Ha ha, got egg on your face!" Why do people find that one so funny? And "Careful, you're walking on eggshells there!"

Stupid idea of the King's anyway, sending the horses.
Men, yes; opposable thumbs and all that. Obvious really.
But horses? They trod all over me!

They've even made a song about it!
I'll never live it down.

Kim Green - London, England

Over Power

The power of beauty is overpowered
By the beauty of power.
The power of love is overpowered
By the love of power
The beauty of love is overpowered
By the love of beauty

Vincent Marmion - Newry, Northern Ireland

A Lovely Pair

When Frank Leftfoot met Fiona Wright-Foote they fell in love, but couldn't marry. So they ran off together.

Pete Cole, Bath, England

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Here are those who made the final short list for August's Micro-Fiction Showcase but didn't quite soar climactically over the final hurdle.

 

Short Story

For my birthday my Granddad gave me a bookend.
I'm hoping to get the book's beginning for Christmas.

Pete Cole, Bath, England

Ripples

Pebbles,
careless wishes
tossed into the still lake.
Who can predict the ripples that spread,
intersect with other longings, disrupt the smooth content?
They sink, forgotten to the muddy bottom,
....... to lie in a heap of discarded dreams.

K. S. Dearsley - Northampton, England

Text
My thumbs were sore from too much texting that day,
but I wrote one more, just to say, ‘I luv u.’
She wrote back,‘I LUV U2,’ which I thought was quite irrelevant.

Ben Davison - Glasgow, Scotland

Wrinkle Cream

My best friend is forty
We all turn up in too tight tops
Determined to look twenty.
Plenty of booze does the trick.

Eithne Walsh - Wicklow, Ireland

Touch Me

The winter sky without the morning sun
is warmer than my life without you.
Renew me with your heat
Warm my heart with your presence.
Love me with your touch.
and touch me with your love.

Linda Fuchs - Ohio, USA

Dhaka Priorities

Pitiable, scrawny legs peddle through sewage in waterlogged streets.
Hot smog scars his lungs.
He conveys heavy, uncaring passengers, unwieldy cargo.
Policemen beat him at crowded intersections.
Boss takes half his wages.
The anguish of having no influence over his own miserable life.
Still, the Dhaka rickshaw driver beams and tells me his daughter will be two years old tomorrow.

John Carter - Nova Scotia, Canada

Postcard from Basra

Her son is laid to rest with full military honours.
Three weeks later it came through the letterbox.
"Hi Mom, Very hot. Good fun. Home soon. Love, Steve."

Pat O'Shea - Cork, Ireland

MOROCCAN MARKET

You bargained with the stallholder
long and hard for a golden shawl
filigree, fine spun as spider silk.
And when you dropped it round my shoulders
with a smile, I knew
you'd bargained also for my soul.
And won.

Marie-Suzanne Altzinger - Dublin, Ireland

 

Thin Line

He was a killer. His victims had all died horrible deaths; their bodies mutilated, cut to ribbons. She stared at him, this monster sitting on a chair, arms tied down, head shaved and covered with the helmet.
Love and hate battled inside her as she waited for her son to die.

Sonia Suedfeld - British Columbia, Canada

 

Mourning Light

White light streaks the Eastern sky
and I, not having slept
Bless you with a kiss
and close your eyes.

Marie-Suzanne Altzinger - Dublin, Ireland

Hopeless

I have written two novels but I can't write thirty words.
Maybe that's why the novels are unpublished.

Claire Mullan - Galway, Ireland

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Winners - July Micro-Fiction Showcase 2007

Each winner receives €25 and a copy of the Fish Anthology 2007 and goes forward to the grand final to win €500 in each category together with a personal web-site sponsored by E-Fastnet Design.

 

Trapped

Last night I came inside, attracted by the warmth and light. The atmosphere was buzzing. But when morning came the exit was clearly blocked, and that was a real pane.

Alan Mulligan, Dublin, Ireland

 

I Glimpse Your Garden

I glimpse your garden— .....................................
....from afar, ......... I skulk in shadows—
Of gilded greens— ...................... black and bare,
.......... ............in golden light, ...........And stalk the night, the dark—
.......... ..............And daren’t enter there. ... dark-souled,

G.S. Westfield - Florida, USA

 

The Battle of Hastings

The Norman bowmen fired with deadly accuracy..
The Anglo-Saxon nobles told the King,
"Their archers are too strong. We're losing."
"Don't worry," Harold said. "I've got my eye on them."

Sally-Anne Thomas - London, England

The Shipwreck

Bucking bark, coffin craft, bell boat battered, raised and rolled
Tossed, then tolled, Hold! Cold, let loose, Lost.
Cavernous wave-grave, deaths in depths.
Dark, darkness, downed, drowned.
No sight; No sigh; No sound.

Christopher Burleigh - Coventry, England

 

A Fairytale of Croydon

This is the foot that the glass slipper wouldn't fit.
These are the lips that didn't turn you into a prince.
Happy anniversary. This is the wish that came true.

Bridget Whelan - Brighton, England

Diminuendo

We struggle to erect
the music-stands and deck-chairs of life
only to find
the song ended
and the sun about to set

Michael Greenhough - Cardiff, Wales

Springlike

Hope springs eternal
In a young man's groin.

Christopher Burleigh - Coventry, England

 

The Truth to a T

To tell the truth, this tiny, tedious tale takes talent to tweak.
(twenty times!),
Tenacity to terminate, temerity to transmit (too true!).
Terrifically tantalizing text, then, this triumph?
Transcendent terminology!

John Carter - Nova Scotia, Canada

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Here are those who made the final short list for July's Micro-Fiction Showcase but didn't quite climb to the highest peaks.

 

So Sick

Insects crawling across sunken face and swollen belly, a voice pleads for compassion. Joshua, disgusted, averts his eyes; so sick he can hardly lather his prawn in sweet chilly dip.

Alan Mulligan, Dublin, Ireland

Pinnacles of Thought

The mountains of my mind
Are clouded in mist,
When it lifts
I shall rise to their summits.

Christopher Burleigh - Coventry, England

The Slimy Pit

I'm in the pit, the slimy pit
The mud, the mire, I'm in a fit
I see no rock on which to stand
No solid ground on which to land

Linda Fuchs - Ohio, USA

Summer Salt

I spin underwater, rags for limbs,
Snatching glimpses of brilliant mottled sky.
Landing with a belly full of sea, and sand up my bum,
I search the surf for my top.

Kellie Jackson - London, England

 

Bare Faced Riddle

If No Nude's
Undressed
Then no nude is
Undone.

Christopher Burleigh - Coventry, England

 

Voice
I watch my hand writing, the unseen becoming visible at the pen's tip.
My hand hears that silent voice and transcribes.
I am surprised by what meets the page .

Annie Lindberg: New Mexico, USA

 

Sunshower

The rain has stopped and before my eyes
The city is roused to life.
A pretty girl on a bicycle.
A man carrying flowers.
A smile on my face as generous as the rainbow.

Helena Dahdouh - Dublin, Ireland

Bad Hair Day

"You stole my lover," hissed the snake."He wanted me."
"You're just an easy lay," her neighbour sneered.
They fought. Below, their owner frowned.
"Another bad hair day," Medusa sighed.

Sally-Anne Thomas - London, England

 

The Prince of Wiles

Only paw prints reveal his presence,
His nose filled with a sense of plaice.
Snatched at pace, consumed with grace,
a Cheshire smile, the only trace.

Gerard Greaney - Limerick, Ireland

 

Literary Vignette #1 (Many a Slip)

Alexander Isayevich Solzhenitsyn,
unaccustomed to ladling stew,
soils the virgin table cloth
with a goulash archipelago.

Michael Greenhough - Cardiff, Wales

Heated and Cold

Fire and ice don't mix, they say.
But I've seen fire with ice.
The fire I saw sprang from the heart.
It caused the ice.

Roderick Nicolson - Mid Glamorgan, Wales

A Football Square

I have absolutely no interest in football -
I wouldn't know one end of a football
From the other.

Christopher Burleigh - Coventry, England

Up in Ashes

Sulphites cling to my sliced tomatoes.Dioxide is stashed in my mashed potatoes
Sodium benzoate's crammed in my jam.Nitrites hide in my hot dogs and ham
A stately funeral was what I'd intended: my coffin Regal Impressive.Splendid
But I'll have to be cremated,I s'pose: ................
I'm so well preserved,I won't decompose

Cynthia Lelos - Massachusettes, USA

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Winners of the June Micro-Fiction Showcase 2007

Doctor's Note

Got test results back today. Prospects not too hot. Suggest you start doing those things you've been putting on the long finger.
P.S. Have an enjoyable few days.

Marie-Suzanne Altzinger - Dublin, Ireland

 

TICK TOCK CLOCK

Two hands that beat time

and us

into stride with

it.

J S Hadfield - Surrey, England

Racing

Sails flap. Hulls dance tantalizingly close. The helmsman shouts. His crew responds, skillfully challenging nature - and themselves. Endurance, patience, strategy, teamwork; briny air breathing new life into stale boardroom ideas.

Mandy Vicsai -Victoria, Australia

 

Pigeons

Always mincing, marching, hopping, swiping corn from homeless hands.

Clowns high-stepping, costume ragged, feathers tinted soot and sand.

Ever questing, independent, pecking litter, dripping waste.

Greedy scavengers fill the gullet, just to fill it, not to taste.

"Nasty creatures," Mothers say, "throw the bread crumbs far away."

Kathy Coogan - Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

 

DAVE

A dog - lovingly named Dave - sat down tiredly in his box.
He might only be ten years old but today he felt like he was seventy.

Harry Wilding - Nottingham, England

 

Autumn Tapestry

It is here where the earth rises up to meet the sky

Where oaks in coats of death glow gold

(as the sun retreats as if in shame)

It is here we stitch our hearts

and stamp our feet

Judith A Brown - Sheffield, England

ADHD: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Some days I feel like a hummingbird

duct-taped to a fencepost.

Natalie McNabb - Newcastle, Washington, USA

 

DECADE

seconds counted, minutes taken

hours chimed, days spent

weeks passed, months flown

years marked

decayed

J S Hadfield Surrey, England

 

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Here are those who made the final short list for June's Micro-Fiction Showcase but didn't quite make it into the winner's circle

 

 

Confusion Fix

My life is so mixed up

That I wish I were an Excel spreadsheet

Then I could just press 'Sort'

Paul Mercer - Grimsby, England

Chastity

I am not a blank, unwritten page. I am a page on which someone has scribbled, and then rubbed out. A page which longs to be scribbled on again.

Clare Hunter - Birmingham, England

Haiku #2

Duvet imprint

of a dawn-departed cat-

feline ammonite

Michael Greenhough - Cardiff, Wales

 

Bread From a small country diner (A true story)

Bread with Butter $1.00

Bread with Marjerin $.90

Bread without Butter $.60

Bread without Marjerin $.50

Philip Loyd - Houston, Texas, USA

 

Fingertip baby

Fingertip baby

Too small to breathe in our world

Curls up in our minds

Barry Gornell - Ayrshire, Scotland

 

The Sacrament of Reconciliation

Bless me Father for I have sinned. It is twenty years since my last Confession. I just stabbed my husband with a kitchen knife.

Clare Hunter - Birmingham, England

 

Life's Mixed-bag

Today had

rather too many nuts

and rather too few raisins

in the mix

Marie-Suzanne Altzinger - Dublin, Ireland

A 28 Omega

Andrew Bright could debate endlessly.

Fucking girls, however, induced joyless Karma.

Lone masturbation never offered pleasure.

Questing round Soho , touched up very well!

Xylem through Y-fronts and zippers.

David M Hambidge - Staffs,England

Practical Planet-keeping

Recycle your cardboard, recycle your tins;

do your bit to cut down on your waste.

Put glass in the bottle bank, not in your bins

and cut carbon emissions, post-haste!

Rebecca Zugor - Chichester, England

Going Up - 1967.

Textbooks, suitcase, a scrap of scarlet tissue on a bleeding chin. On the platform she waves, smiling brightly. Afterwards, she weeps.

Rosanna McGlone-Healey - Lincoln, England

Hell or Connaught

Drochty Muller spilt red blood

on the sun-drenched barren stone,

kissed by the golden spray from the summer ocean.

Roundhead oath? Assassin`s blunder?

Drochty sloped off east around the edge of the churning lough.

Arthur Greenwood - Bangor,Co. Down, N. Ireland

Speed Date

" Tell me about yourself," he hotly breathed. She did.

Her Me-time, her pussycat, men she'd improved, the planned Hindu trek (to find herself). Aries but .

"You leave when?" he interrupted .

Teresa M Hewitt - Gloucestershire, England

 

Ill Used

It's night when the embittered man arrives. 'I've come about the ad in the paper.' He pays £10 for the box, 'Halo and wings (Slightly soiled)'.

CA Gillingham - South Sheilds, England

 

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Below are the winners of the just-for-fun Fish Micro Fiction Competition - January 2007

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Over-All Winner - Micro-Story

Unseen

There's a tiger inside me. Roaming at the lake water nearby, I'm grassing around alone, hoping a mermaid will see me from the depth and say. "There's a tiger inside you. I can see him."
Marlin Santoso - Jakarta, Indonesia

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Over-All Winner - Four-Line Verse

Apple Trees in April

Snowflakes drift down through apple blossoms,
. a Japanese painting suspended in cold spring air.
April showers shiver white, glint like white-faced geishas
. peeking through the dappled branches.
Rose Donisi - New Jersey, USA

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The rest of the winners!

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The Price of Coal

Coal dust fell from his clothes onto the lino
as they laid him on the bed,
which creaked like winding gear.
Later, his wife washed his face in the darkness.
Margaret Lyon - Temple Cowley, UK

 

FOUNDATION STONE 2021

Dedicated to all Human Beings
On Planet Earth
From whence
Four courageous individuals
Arrived at this spot
MONS.OLYMPUS.MARS
And became the First Humans
To walk on Martian Soil
Dan J.J. Kahn - Sheffield, UK

 

present tense of being a woman

I am sorry (you are sorry, she is sorry)
we are sorry
you are sorry
they are very, very, very sorry.
Berta Freistadt - London, UK

 

LUANG PRABANG II (A Travel Microstory)

By the Mekong, an old Laotian offers me his moonshine.

He says I look like a ghost, with my pale skin and grey eyes.

But real ghosts do not drink.
Tihana Majcen - Quebec. Canada

 

Dawn in the 15th Arrondisement

The first bird feels the first beat of the dawn.
His six clear notes to the dark are answered by
single sleepy cheeps spread along the vine covered wall
A dove chortles the morning haiku, each coo a koan of the coming day.
Nancy Norton - Amsterdam, Netherlands

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