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101 Word Short Stories

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The Mayfly

September 3, 2024 10 Comments

By David Glen

From a tiny clutch of pearlescent eggs, she breaks into the morning light.

As the sun rises and salutes the Earth, she unfurls her wings for the first, and the last, time.

Her life is but a fleeting moment, transitory as the duckweed blossoms she visits while the morning hours tick past.

Her brothers and sisters drift in soft clouds across the water, while an afternoon glow creeps out and yawns across the marsh.

Her youth has barely begun, but her motherhood has already arrived; she is a whisper on a fleeting evening breeze.

Twenty-four hours is all she gets.

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September 12 & 13 on Zoom
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Dart humeston says

    September 3, 2024 at 8:37 am

    Beautifully written.

    Reply
  2. Kathy Carroll says

    September 3, 2024 at 8:55 am

    So lovely — poetic and poignant.

    Reply
  3. Michelle Mellon says

    September 3, 2024 at 6:33 pm

    Lovely!

    Reply
  4. Mary says

    September 4, 2024 at 3:57 am

    As the sun rises and salutes the earth…..beautiful words bringing nature alive

    Reply
  5. Lian says

    September 4, 2024 at 8:35 am

    Beautiful! I love the way your words take the reader along!

    Reply
  6. Lisa H. Owens says

    September 4, 2024 at 4:17 pm

    This made me get a little misty-eyed. Poetic and lovely.

    Reply
  7. Ramona Taylor says

    September 4, 2024 at 5:45 pm

    Good writing. This could be metaphor for our own lives

    Reply
  8. Ed Kratz says

    September 7, 2024 at 3:41 pm

    Beautiful. Well done.

    Reply
  9. Harris says

    September 12, 2024 at 5:57 am

    Brilliantly evocative!

    Reply
  10. David Glen says

    September 24, 2024 at 8:37 am

    Thanks for the kind feedback, everyone!

    Reply

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