Saturday 15 October 2016

SHORT STORY COMPETITION: The Bridport Prize (Flash Fiction)

Dear all,

One more competition entry I can now blog as the time period for selection has passed. This time it was flash fiction with a maximum word count of 250.

The Bridport Prize (Flash Fiction)




Self Portrait

Damn this chair! I’m catching a layer of dirty air that overlays a prismatic array of coloured mist across my face. That will not do! The angle of my neck is impossible, I will not lie, but the bulging veins and lizard skin are forcing my hand. That will not do! Holding my shoulders back, high and wide with chin up and jutting jaw stating my place in the world corrupts the mirror. The thinning blue tint of the morning strangles me but the afternoon grey is too dark and ages unfairly. The person I am is not being seen! This amalgam of oils cannot distill the tricks this room is playing. That will not do! I want to be remembered for all the dreams I had, to hell with life’s limitations and barricades. Shame on them! That will not do! My eyes tell of other people’s failures and I am more than their disappointments, more than the crooked eyebrows and sunken cheeks that rob me of my influence… my passion must live on in black gold grandeur… but this room… It will not do! 


Have a great weekend,

R.G Rankine