I’m a creepy, lonely man!?

Flash Fiction

…

by Stan Faryna

…

…

Duran Duran, Come Undone

…

…

I’m a creepy, lonely man!?

…

That question rocked his being.

…

That’s what she’s thinking about me. Right now.

…

He reflected on her words, weighed each one like it was a roll of one ounce, gold eagle coins. And he cringed, at the same time, like he was sucking on a lemon.

…

What made him… so creepy?

…

Unembarrassed by his reply of silence to her playful comment, she smiled at him. Then she lifted the champagne flute to her lips and took a sip.

… 

The Nobel Prize meant nothing. Three New York Times Best Sellers didn’t matter in the slightest bit.

…

The framed picture of him shaking hands with the President could not redeem him from her seemingly impetuous epithet.

…

Is my hair creepy? My smile? The sound of my voice? The folded Doctor Who scarf draped over the railing

…

…

“What do you want to do in five years?” she asked – hoping to get the conversation going again.

…

…

He let a minute pass by in silence. It felt like an hour. To both of them.

…

“I’m just going to be me,” he finally answered. ‘Hopefully, more truly me. With the grace of God…”

…

He knew it was the wrong answer. It was an honest answer. Courageous. It was even a profound answer.

…

It was still the wrong answer if he had wanted to live what truth and beauty would out. In a first kiss…

…

Maybe, I should have said, founder of the Facebook killer. Inventor of hyper-intelligent eye wear. The genius that engineers Yahoo’s comeback.

…

This was prolly the last time he’d answer a personal ad seeking “a real man, an honest and sincere man, a man of character, passion and wisdom…”

…

Because when you are a creepy, lonely man, those things count for nothing.

…

Right? 

…

…

“Can I be me too?” she asked softly.

“Can I become undone?”

…

“Why not?!” he replied.

…

She gave a big sigh of relief, stood up and slipped off her dress.

…

Then she unzipped her shoulders and her six wings slowly unfolded to their full, silvery magnificence.
…

###…

If you enjoyed this flash fiction, you may enjoy my novella, F.A.B. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071S75DWB

…

Note: My attempts at flash fiction are mostly inspired by John Magnet Bell of Start Your Novel.

…

Stan Faryna
23 July 2013
Fairfax, Virginia

…

Blame it on the poet Anthony Wilson

…

by Stan Faryna

…

…

Haddaway, What is Love

…

Blame it on the poet Anthony Wilson. He writes in his blog, today, about Love. Holub’s Love. Read it here: Falling in love with Holub’s Love.

Anthony’s blog post and Miroslav Holub’s poem (that Anthony shares with us) inspired me to look again at a poor attempt I made many years ago – a poor attempt to reflect on Love. To live up to Love. To drink upon stars.

And looking, I smiled, because there is some good advice in that mess. And, ironically, I cannot count the times when such seemingly sound advice was unheeded. In friendship. In romance. In faith. In pursuing, perfection – whatever that means.

And that is what I want to share with you, today. Laugh (or smile) with me at my own chagrin. And TRY, try, please try… not to take the foolish half steps that I keep on doing!

Thank you, Anthony.

…

Drink upon the stars

by Stan Faryna

…

As far away as the stars

sparkling like champagne bubbles

above lonely country lanes.

…

As close as a flame’s lick

that promises to consume

an eager moth – instantly.

… 

As sweet as Casablanca –

fragrant lilium beckons

us like the Lotus eaters

of Homer.

…

Like a grassy

path in want of wear –

some warn it’s runs the minefields.

… 

Love!

… 

Dares us to walk barefooted

across the broken bottles

of our reckless, past license

and hot, spent cigarette butts.

…

Our demons, tall as mountains,

may hide behind blades of grass

but the feet that run, fleetly,

naked, innocent, fly freely…

.

… 

Oh – how they fly!

… 

Untorn.

… 

Half steps, however, break hearts

as easily as shale cliffs

crumble under a foolish foot.

… 

Love?

… 

How often have foolish feet

carried me by the half steps

across the slippery slopes

of pride and ingratitude,

down the broken, rocky lanes

that terminate abruptly?

… 

If love is a fearless path…

…

If love is a fearless path,

let us go there, fearlessly!

… 

Let us drink upon the stars.

…

Love!!!

…

Stan Faryna
12 July 2013
Fairfax, Virginia

How will you celebrate Independence Day?

…

by Stan Faryna

…

…

Awolnation, Not Your Fault

…

Some look anxiously and find a fog of profound political corruption, increasingly authoritarian gestures of the federal government and change – not necessarily for progress, freedom or peace. Nor is change limited to politics – the planets are undergoing change and that includes the Earth. Global warming and space weather are forces beyond our control, manipulation and general means to adapt.

The American experiment seems in imminent danger. The ship of state seems headed for the rocks – why else would an anti-gun administration double down on it’s orders for ammunition for domestic security forces and make our civil liberties suspendable at the drop of a hat? Civil unrest is being provoked by the very technocrats that seem to fear it the most.

…

What can we hope? In whom shall we trust? Peace and security is a suspicious banner – if it is a banner purchased with our dignity as human persons. Or our liberty. Or our destiny.

… 

Reflect (if only for a moment) that American Independence won a constitution which has no compare. Nor ever shall – I fear.

…

We the People  of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America…

 …

If you celebrate the Fourth of July, understand that you celebrate the Constitution of The United States of America, those that fought and labored for it, fought and labored by its commission, and those that continue to defend, honor and serve it.

…

The U.S. Constitution is what unites Americans in a noble and historic course of Freedom (human freedom). We are united by it in purpose, mission and destiny. It demands certain discipline, faithfulness and virtue. Of each of us. And lots of love wouldn’t hurt either.

…

U.S. National Archives where the Declaration and U.S. Constitution are preserved for our dignity.

…

And if we can’t swallow that together with pride and humility – we shall be divided, broken and – each of us – thrown to peril.

…

All will be punished.

…

But its not your fault. Right?

…

Or is it?

…

Stan Faryna
3 July 2013
Fairfax, Virginia