Breath & Shadow
Fall 2019 - Vol. 16, Issue 4
"What William Had To Do"
written by
Keith Nunes
William listens from the back seat
His parents in their usual he drives she’s passive order of things
Father launches ‘I don’t know what you go through
When you go through with these attempts
All I’m saying is if you’re genuine about
Getting to the end of it all
You should really do a proper job, next time I mean,
Because this to-ing and fro-ing is getting your mother down’
William’s mother turns in the passenger seat and faces her son
‘If I had been as efficient
As your father would like you to be
You and I wouldn’t be here at all son’
William’s father brakes hard
As he leans over to slap his wife
William lands a punch to his father’s temple
No-one is moving in the car
When the policeman
Knocks on the driver’s window
Keith Nunes lives in tiny Pahiatua (New Zealand). He has been nominated for the Best Small Fictions 2019, the Pushcart Prize and won the 2017 Flash Frontier Short Fiction Writing Award. He’s had poetry, haiku, short fiction, Asemic Writing and Foto-Poetry published around the globe.