Lab, Week 4– Michrofiction

(Image: Tiny Book Source: SocialPrint)

First Story: Drabble

(Author's note: I've been experimenting with a series of poems and short stories on the subject of motherhood. One aspect of motherhood not often explored is when the mother does not feel for her child as a mother should, especially when the mother is afraid of the emotions associated with motherhood. This poem explores such a relationship and the emotions the mother feels when she realizes that she feels nothing for her son.)

Mothering

Why couldn't she feel the baby in her heart the way she felt him in her arms?
Her boy, couched in her elbow, wrapped up in rice paper, smiling.
She absently traced his face. Her finger brushing his red lips.
He glanced up at her with dark eyes, his face devoid of alarm.
Why not feel nothing? A material child for a material girl. 
Such was the cost of being independent of emotion.
She shuddered at the alternative and gladly took the loss. 

Second Story: Six-word story

(Author's note: I had to try this story format– it really piqued my interest when I first read about microstories at the beginning of the class! Since my first story didn't really involve a myth, I decided to write this one on the moment Rama realized he didn't feel for Sita anymore. I found this story really shocking when I first read it, and I wanted to explore the emotions in a short, intense story. This was really tough– the baby shoes story really inspired me, but creating a punchy story in six words is super difficult. I would have been better off writing another 100-word story!)

Capricious

It kills me; she's a stranger. 

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