Kathryn Silver-Hajo: THREE MICROFICTIONS • Cleaver Magazine

Kathryn Silver-Hajo
THREE MICROFICTIONS

The Divide

I hadn’t spoken with Grandma since she went into assisted living. I missed visiting her lemon-and-love-infused apartment at holidays, our weekly calls. Now we chatted about my MFA program, the Haitian nurse who snuck her beignets and pain patate. Before hanging up, she asked, Sorry, dear—who is this again?

As They Lower the Coffin into the Earth

Ruby senses the caterpillar crawling up her leg, shudders, flicks it away. When it returns, she sees that it’s the black and amber of a familiar flannel shirt. Ruby closes her eyes, tries to ignore the tickle on her leg, but despite all efforts at evading that woolly bear, it insists on clinging. Soon you’ll fly free, she whispers, now let me do the same.

What’s Left:

Order finger sandwiches. Make his favorite caponata.

Call brawling sibs Dan, Bob re: plant tree on Mt. Jefferson? Scatter ashes on Long Island Sound?

Iron black clothes He’d say white!

Box up fifty years of musical compositions.

Say goodbye. No goodbyes, remember?

Press his bathrobe to your face. Breathe deeply.

Kathryn Silver-Hajo is a Pushcart Prize, Best Microfiction, Best Small Fictions, and Best American Food Writing nominee. “The Sweet Softness of Dates” was selected for the 2023 Wigleaf Top 50 longlist. Kathryn’s work appears in Atticus Review, CRAFT, Emerge Literary, Ghost Parachute, New Flash Fiction Review, Pithead Chapel, Ruby Literary, The Ekphrastic Review, The Phare, and other lovely journals. Her flash collection Wolfsong and YA novel Roots of The Banyan Tree were both published in 2023. She lives in Providence with her husband and curly-tailed pup, Kaya. More at: kathrynsilverhajo.com; facebook.com/kathryn.silverhajo; twitter.com/KSilverHajo; instagram.com/kathrynsilverhajo.