We hope you’re enjoying our recommendations for our weekly selection of Short Reads.

This week, we’re sharing the following:

A micro flash by Sarah Freligh (micro is even shorter than regular flash, and often about 250 words).

One of our all-time favourite flash creative nonfiction by Natalie Lima.

And a poem by one of Marilyn’s mentors, Sandra Beasley.

When we first came across these short pieces, they made us pause, think, and reflect–isn’t that the best? Readings that we connect with?

We hope you connect with these and that you find something in them that resonates with you.

Let us know which is your favourite in the comments below.

Two Flash & One Poem – Our Selection of Riveting Reads

• “We Smoke,” Sarah Freligh

“We smoke because the nuns say we shouldn’t—he-man Marlboros or Salems, slender and meadow fresh, over cups of thin coffee at the Bridge Diner. We fill an ashtray in an hour easy while Ruby the waitress marries ketchups and tells us horror stories about how her first labor went on for fifty-two hours until her boy was yanked out of her….”

Sarah Freligh

• “Snowbound,” by Natalie Lima

“You don’t cry because you’ve earned this. Because you’re poor, and you’re Latin, and your dad ran off with the neighbor, yet you still killed it on the SAT—you are clearly destined for greatness. You don’t cry because you are dying to leave your barrio, dying to leave that couch you sleep on. Because even though it’s scary, you know this fancy school is where you were always meant to be.”

Natalie Lima

• “The Exhibition Was Very Beautiful,” by Sandra Beasley.

“The exhibition opened on a rainy Thursday, with cello suite. 

They hung the paintings to be viewed from both front and back. 

Luna moths flapped their great green sail-wings.”

Sandra Beasley

Be sure to check out each of these separate works on their original places of publication. You can do that by following each of their respective links.

We hope we enjoy these.

Let us know your thoughts on this week’s selection.

-Isabel & Marilyn