2 Flash Fictions from "The Apocalypse"
by Anastacia-Reneé
day-drinking
we started drinking gin at 11:00 am because we woke up to a shooting on our block and i’m not saying people should day-drink i’m just saying all the sudden we are day- drinking and the drink is called a honey badger and because now we are day-drunk badging off of 5 or 6 of these when the bar tender tells us the official end of the world as you know it starts at 12:00 am, we laugh. ha ha isn’t this new reality so funny? right?
it’s not the kind of laugh you laugh when you’ve been told a predictably funny joke, it’s the kind of half cackle half delayed snort you do when you realize you’ve started your period in a fancy white dress and you’re in the three stalled bathroom making the best homemade pad you can home made make three minutes before the fancy host sings your first and last name. it’s the kind of laugh sandwiched between hitting your funny bone against a wall next to a wall next to wall inside a the horses mouth. ha ha isn’t this new reality so funny? right?
there are count down parties happening everywhere (still) and every religious group is explaining why you should be on their team and though i’m not a christian i have to say team jesus has some fantastic swag and t-shirts that come in half sizes.
it is the beginning of the end of the world & i’m still here. how funny is that. ha ha isn’t this new reality so funny? right? & what do the living do at the start of the apocalypse once we find out our sweet honey badger of a bartender is dead.
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say what
the new girl arrived with her hands inside her mouth & her voice in her pocket. & you might think this is just a cool way of telling the story dear reader, i am telling you the truth. & when we asked her all the usual questions she pointed to her left pocket for the answers & there we found her voice box decorated in black paper & red glittering stars. the voice coming from the voice box was not at all what we expected but then again what does anyone expect from a voice box? what does anyone expect from a time such as this?
Anastacia-Renee is a multi-genre writer, educator, and interdisciplinary artist. She is the recipient of the 2018, James W. Ray Distinguished Artist Award for Washington artists (Artist Trust), and has served as the Seattle Civic Poet from 2017-2019, and the 2015-2017 Poet-in-Residence at Hugo House. She is the author of five books: Forget It (Black Radish Books), (v.), (Black Ocean) 26, (Dancing Girl Press), Kiss Me Doll Face (Gramma Press) and Answer(Me) (Winged City Chapbooks, Argus Press) and has received writing fellowships and residencies from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, VONA, Artist Trust, Jack Straw, Ragdale, Whiteley, Mineral School and Hypatia in the Woods.