My ideas bank was empty, until a poem I wrote thirty-odd years ago came to mind. This story is a prose version.
FROTHY COFFEE
In the
coffee bars of my youth we used to put the world to rights.
In our
virtual reality no-one went hungry, because fertile nations grew enough food
for everyone. Racism was a thing of the past in a world where all skin was cafė-au-lait. Democracy worked,
politicians were honest, population was steady and disease controlled. War was
banished – there was never, we agreed, a valid reason to take another’s life.
Sitting
over spaghetti and frothy coffee, I believed in all this passionately – until I
became a mother. Now, if
anyone harmed my child, he wouldn’t live to see another sunrise.
........................................
And here is the original poem -
KILLING
In coffee
bars
twenty years
ago
we talked
endlessly
about the
morality
of killing
–
There was
never
we said
a good
reason
to take
another’s life.
But now,
if anyone
touched my child
or did to
him
any of
the unspeakable things
people do
to people
these days,
I would
kill them myself
with these
hands
only one
killing
wouldn’t
be enough.
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So there you have it - two for the price of one! Please leave a comment before visiting the other writers of flash fiction by following the link from Rochelle's blog.
