stop and the flowers

Stop and almost take a picture of the flowers then get critical of the way you frame

shots and maybe you’re not good at anything, maybe you take bad pictures, you do, and

your ex, she liked your flower pictures that day but there were bees in those, and there are

no bees in these, even though there are bees nearby, lots of bees, and should I wait? and

she loved you, and you really did, you loved her, it was real, but you were so scared of

her, and with good reason, honestly, and sure neither of you were perfect, that’s very

diplomatic of you to say, but she was fucking mean, yeah but you were clingy, and that

annoyed her, and that would annoy you, too, and it’s your fault really, that it ended,

because you asked her to change, you asked for something, it wasn’t neutral, you wanted

more of her because you were sad, just like your mom’s doing now, which doesn’t feel

good, which was probably why she left you, and that was so long ago, and that day with

the bees and the flowers was good but you almost broke up that day, you talked about it,

you both hinted at it, but you wouldn’t, not for another year, another spring, and why

would anyone want a picture of flowers with no bee in it? who would care? not me and

I’m the only one who’ll ever see it so don’t take it and just walk away.

Crockett Doob lives in Rockaway Beach, NY, and does not surf. His work has been published in Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Querencia Press, Does It Have Pockets, Free Flash Fiction, and HiLoBrow.