19 Comments
Mar 1, 2023Liked by Sharron Bassano

Yup. Bitterness can ruin both a beautiful day and a super book. Better cool down first and then go find her and let her know she hurt your feelings really hard. Or he'll be living alone for a long time.

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Is he right? Is he wrong? Is she right or wrong? Hurt or vanity or both . . . for both?

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Mar 1, 2023Liked by Sharron Bassano

Oh boy, been there myself.

I love the short format. You really have to skip anything that doesn't advance the narrative and you have done that so well in this piece.

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Oooooh, tricky stuff! Such a great story - no words wasted, but you cut straight to the chase. The perfect read, Sharron!

(And embarrassingly relatable....!)

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Sounds to me like he is wasting the day away! Some people will take grudges to their graves, and for the life of me, I’ll never understand how or why they do this. My hope for him is that he figures it out sooner than later!

Great story in so few words, Sharron!

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Great story. Most of us have been here I think, I have I know I have!

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Silly pride. Life is too short for that.

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Ha! Love this. So many relationships experience moments like these. I hope they'll work things out. Well done in so few words, Sharron.

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Lovely, Sharron. In addition to admiring your skill at telling a story in exactly 50 words (!), I'm impressed by how you've blended two opposing images or moments. It's in the spirit of Still Life art to create a work that often juxtaposes dispirit objects to "evoke a mood and remind you of life's hidden and temporary beauty" and/or to "portray complex themes" ("What is a Still Life," Getty Museum). In addition to your story I was fascinated by its title and spent a lot of time considering it. Your first paragraph captures (freezes?) one of life's delicious moments ("sweet breeze," blooming "cherry trees," 'cannoli"). The "visit with old friends" delivers a promise of still more delights to follow. Then we get the gut punch as the mood shifts from delight to despondency: "Still resentful. Still bitter. Still waiting..." The man, like images in a traditional Still Life painting has been transformed into an inanimate object. Wow. I also like considering another reading of "still life" -- as in "yes, despite that the man is currently inert, has (perhaps temporarily) ceased to move he still is life. Thanks for posting it!

P.S. For what it's worth, I obsessed a bit about the opening sentence of your second paragraph. I don’t know why it bothered me; maybe it felt too much like revealing the shift too quickly (does that even make sense?). In any case, I wondered if instead of "But mo." it was "Yet." or even "However." Or even... "Still...

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