Summer stole her. Little amphibious body. Falling hot sky, burnt marshmallows. Adults believing her lies. People’s stories told in their sleeping sighs, the shape of their hips as they walked. Bloody fingers rubbed together in the rain. Whispers to boys behind mossy trees, into their fragile chests. Clinging damp bathing suits chilling in the sun. When she gets home, her mother watches her peel a layer of dead, burnt skin from the back of her hand. “What did you learn?” she asks.
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The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest
The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest (The Mikey) is now an annual competition celebrating and compensating the best micro fiction and nonfiction online.
The grand prize winner of The Mikey is automatically nominated for Best Small Fictions and any other prize we deem appropriate. In addition, we will pay the grand prize winner $1000. Second place: $500. Third place $300. Finalists: $100. All finalists and placers will be published in the December ’25 issue of SmokeLong.
Previously published as well as previously unpublished work will be considered.