My child found a globe of ice bigger than his embrace. Leaves and sticks were frozen in a whirlpool inside. He held it out as best he could for me to wonder. Through it, he was captured too. “How did it get that way?” he asked. When he finally handed it to me and I put it down for the cold and melt of it, I could see his small inverted image inside, rushing toward friends. Legs running across an earthy sky, arms swimming a blue dirt ocean away from me until he was a speck inside the ice, disappearing.
Finalist, Fall Contest 2023. Contest Readers’ praise included “great description and surreal action” and “an unusual, fun story.”
Julene Waffle is a mother of three boys, a teacher, entrepreneur, and writer. She loves her family, her pets, writing, and nature, in that order. www.wafflepoetry.com