SmokeLong Quarterly

A woman is driving 100 miles-per-hour toward a brick wall. She’s slamming the brakes, but they don’t work. Her boyfriend, in the passenger’s seat, chews gum and scrolls Instagram. He pumps one fist and shouts along to yacht rock. The woman volunteers at Habitat for Humanity. Her boyfriend is a budding ornithologist. Flips the bird everywhere he goes haha get it? The wall is a breaking point, rapidly approaching. The car is a 2002 Honda Civic with a mismatched door panel and a bumper bra. The woman is afraid for her life. The wall is afraid, too. The woman punches her boyfriend in the thigh and says do something you idiot. The boyfriend shrugs with both hands like, what?! Cloud vomit litters the berm; the wall holds its bricks a little tighter. The woman pulls the emergency break. The glove box ejects a Jack-in-the-box waving limp arms. Dammit says the woman. What the fuck says the boyfriend. Vote your conscience! says Jack-in-the-box. Fphffbbffbff says an avalanche of fast food napkins billowing out behind him. The car is un-brakable, the sky a sick wheel of light. Under whirring tires, asphalt cackles. Don’t look says the wall to its quivering mortar. Don’t look says the spinning light. Oh god says the bumper bra. Rosanna, yeah! says the boyfriend, punching through the moonroof. Love me says the woman, talking to the wall. Love me says the wall, turning to mist. Aauugghhh says the boyfriend, as the light-wheel takes his hand at the wrist.

“Gender study; gestalt” is the second-place winner in The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest 2025. This micro was originally published in Ran Off With the Star Bassoon.