2019 FlashBack Fiction Microfiction Competition: Moon
Third Place
Moon Burial
by Johanna Robinson
Is it lonely up there, high as heaven? Did you once, alive, imagine looking down on us all, pinching the Earth between finger and thumb, as though to send it spinning? How deep was the crater of your disappointment when the doctor said No, Eugene? Or did NASA break the news, the dream? How quickly did you shed regret, like rocks from a pocket, spit out the dust of fate, and train your telescope, train your astronauts? When they launched your ashes, did you feel the loss of air, ungrasp gravity? How quiet is it up there, Eugene, at last?
Johanna has been writing short fiction for around three years, squeezed alongside her job as a freelance proofreader and her two little-ish children. A number of her stories have appeared in print and online magazines, and her historical flash-novella Homing has recently been published by Ad Hoc Fiction.
Her writing website is www.johanna-robinson.com and she can be found procrastinating on Twitter at @JohannaWordpool.