RESULTS – Microcosms 88

So sorry for the long delay, but here are your results, just in time for 89!

Thanks to everyone who entered this week. We had 14 awesome entries this week and great community engagement! It really makes my heart soar to see so many people commenting on stories and helping each other out. I don’t always say so, but I certainly appreciate it, and I’m sure others do, as well.

Please keep returning to Microcosms, and retweet / spread the word about this contest among your followers and friends.

Don’t forget that Microcosms exists primarily to provide a platform for the flash fiction community to hone their skills, and secondarily to give entrants a chance of receiving an accolade from that week’s judge. We also have the vote button for anyone – not just fellow entrants – to register their favourite/favorite(s) and thus establish a Community Pick.

Remember, you can reply with a comment to any and all of the entries AT ANY TIME: It’s good to have feedback.

Many thanks to Valita Suzanne for judging MC 88. Here’s what she had to say:

So, this was an interesting bunch of stories, filled with all manner of… well, cats. Without further ado, my judgment.
Valita

 

 Favourite / Favorite Lines

Carin Marais – Ether shimmered in the dark alley as the creature appeared and stalked along the cobblestones on all fours.
AJ Walker – You’ll soon know, if you look in their eyes
We’re intruders, it’s their world: Believe!
Eloise – Paint flew, pens sprinted across the table as they created their masterpieces.
Kelly Griffiths – Cradling the cat in her arms, she took slow, shuffling steps, the kind that don’t want to, not toward Mother and Father and the RV, but to the front door, to all was left of the cat’s home.
mirandats – Dogs howl at each other, I knew, and at people, sensible things to howl at.
Ell Meadow – To the beat of an unseen drum –She ventures out to see the sum,
Of the damage that has been wrought.
Michael Emerson – A word most fitting, for sitting around
A campfire, beans abound.
Bill Engleson – He was well-scaled, Or so I thought,
This nattering fish With his Hurricane Box.
Angelique Pacheco – The table had no legs,
And couldn’t support his toes.
Nancy Beach – Our eyes met, and darkness flashed over her face.
Steph Ellis – “I know you’re not a flowers and chocolates kind of woman.”
Sian Brighal – Can get past the fact We just failed to act
So she’s wiping her face Of the human race.
Sally Armstrong – …a fox stretched out underneath a tree, silent, as if basking in the moonlight, not stirred by my presence or the light from my torch.
 

Honourable / Honorable Mention

mirandats – Last One Standing

Cat people say what ye will, but a hundred angry felines in a dark room? Terrifying. Some great imagery in this one too.

Carin Marais – What the Ether Let Through

This story was ominous as it was thrilling, and spooky in its implications.

 

 

Runner-up

Kelly Griffiths – Color

There’s something so tragic and honest about this piece.

 

And now, without further ado, we present the winners of Microcosms 88.

 

(insert drumroll here)

 

 

Community Picks

It’s a tie!

Eloise – The Draw Off
197 words
Cartoon / Tiny Planet / Western

“This planet is not big enough for the both of use” shouted Theo.
“Yes, it is” screamed Jean back.
“No it is not” said Theo as he slammed his fist against the table.
“Fine. I challenge you to a duel”
“What kind of duel?” ask Theo. His eyebrow slightly raised.
“A drawing duel. We let our pens talk. The one with the best art stays on the planet”
“Fine”.
Theo’s assistant gathered all his pens, brushes and paints. This was going to a challenge he would enjoy winning.
They sat opposite each other. Their pens poised. The assistant shouted “DRAW”. Jean and Theo scribbled like their lives depended on it. Paint flew, pens sprinted across the table as they created their masterpieces. “Done” shouted Theo with a satisfactory smile. Jean raised his head. His art was almost complete.
“What is that?” sniggered Theo.
“It’s an elephant. Have you never seen an elephant?”sneered Jean
“Yes. Of course, but that looks like a grey mush”
“Well, show us your masterpiece then.” Said Jean indignantly
Lifting his masterpiece, Jean’s mouth made an O. He made his way to the spaceship. He could never draw with such clarity as Theo.
 

Michael Emerson – Today I Learned
46 words
Creature / Your Choice! / Poetry

I admit,
I knew bombilate.
So rotund a word,
For a buzzing sound.
However, this where I get cleverer!
I didn’t know about bombulate.
A word most fitting, for sitting around
A campfire, beans abound.

Although I now do wonder,
If bees Bombulate while they bombilate?
 

Judge’s Pick

Bill Engleson – Hurricane, Schmurricane, Hide Me in My Box of Sugarcane

This almost whimsical poem was so ridiculous, yet so well written that one can’t help but love it. It’s like Dr. Seuss meets Douglas Adams, just fantastic.

300 words
Talking Fishy Businessman / In a Box / Horror/Comedy

The seas they were bubbling
boiling and rubbling
groiling and stubbling,
Swirling in the skies
were hurling storm pies,
a thousand miles wide,
with nowhere to hide.

Into this mix,
This apocalicks,
came a nattering fish
with a businessman’s bent.

“I have here a box,
And tis my great wish
That wherever the winds rush,
Wherever they rock.
My Hurricane Box
will save your sad tush.”

He was well-scaled,
Or so I thought,
This nattering fish
With his Hurricane Box.
Still, buyer beware
Is a sensible motto
As I hunkered down
In my grungy grotto
That afforded no help
From the pending hurricane
But my pockets were empty,
A common refrain.

So, I said…
“It seems like it might
Be worth a bit of a look,
Might I jump inside?”
And he bit the hook.

“Of course, take a peek,”
His fishy lips said,
“You’ll see it’s equipped
With a compact bed,
A biffy, a cooker, dried food galore,
You could survive a day, a week
Or, heavens knows, forevermore.

BUT…before you venture in,
To my brilliantly rendered
Hurricane Bin,
I need a deposit, so give me some skin.”

Well he had me there,
My pockets were thin,
Not even a dime, did I have therein.

“Ah, my entrepreneurial friend,”
I appealed to his heart,
“I am temporarily without
Coin of the realm.
Take pity on me
I am quite overwhelmed.”

He moved not a whit,
So, I had to dig deep,
The family plantation
I could no longer keep.
“Fine fish, here’ a deed
To land faraway,
A fortune in sugarcane
Is yours from today.”

He licked his fish lips
With shylockian glee
“We have a deal,
A deal have we.”

The seas they are bubbling
boiling and rubbling
groiling and stubbling,
but I have my great
Hurricane Box.

 

Congratulations, Bill. Please let us know if you’d like to judge the next go round!