Effortless

“I like how the light hits the patches of grass there,” Maggie whispered in her usual laboured voice.

“This spring has been gorgeous,” Alex retorted with a smile.

“Yes. Nature speaks beautifully...” With a trembling finger, Maggie pointed to the slope behind the wall. At its top, a solitary path winded its way towards the horizon.

A sound came out of her mouth, followed by a second and third ones.

Alex remembered instantly. Sunday mornings in bed… Effortless walks… Lively pizza nights…

The resilience in Maggie’s wordless incantation made everything else insignificant. Happiness had never left.

©2021 Cendrine Marrouat

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Effortless is a flashku inspired by Emily Dickinson’s A Light exists in Spring.

A Flashku, which I created in 2021, is a short piece of flash fiction that borrows from the Sixku, Kindku, and Haiku.

Rules:

• 50-100 words
• 7 words must be taken from another piece (credits mandatory)
• Inspired by an image (permission and credits mandatory)
• Minimal descriptions
• Climax at about 80% through the piece (not a hard rule, just a way to guide your writing)
• Positive / inspirational twist or resolution at the end

To see more of my forms, click below:

That's it for today! Thank you for reading!

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Cendrine Marrouat is a writer, photographer, podcaster, blogger, anthology editor, and the co-founder of Auroras & Blossoms and A Warm Cup of Cozy. She has authored and co-authored more than 40 books, including The Train: A Short Story (2023), In Her Own Words: A Collection of Short Stories & Flashku (2022), After the Fires of Day: Haiku Inspired by Kahlil Gibran & Alphonse de Lamartine (2021), Rhythm Flourishing: A Collection of Kindku and Sixku (2020), Walks: A Collection of Haiku (2019-2020), and In the Silence of Words: A Three-Act Play (2018).

Cendrine's work has appeared in many publications. She is the creator of the Sixku, Flashku, Sepigram, and Reminigram; as well as the co-creator of the Kindku, Pareiku, Vardhaku, and Hemingku.