microstory Archives | Numéro Cinq

In the spirit of Ror Wolf’s microstory just published yesterday on NC, we offer a homegrown micro author Cynthia Sample, a Texan who finds the strictures of story form an inspiration for jokes, whimsy, serendipity, found texts and mixed form. Call this an antidote to all the awkward 20-page monsters that so earnestly deploy characterization, backfill, social issue thematics and deep meaning. Don’t look for deep meaning here, at least not that kind of deep meaning. But the spirit of play is at work, irony is at work, the author possesses the flexibility of mind to see that a text can have more than one economy of use.

This is the automated Emergency Blackboard of the Town of Highland Park. The National Weather Service has issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Dallas, Collin and Tarrant Counties which includes our area.

Take cover immediately.

Winds are expected to be 50-60 miles per hour. During a Severe Thunderstorm, tornadoes can develop with very little warning.

Take cover immediately in the safest place within your home, either a central hallway or in an enclosed bathtub in the lower level of your home. Cover yourself with mattresses or other padding if you are able.

Stay away from windows.

Do not drive. Flash flooding is expected along all major highways and roads going into and out of the Town of Highland Park. Be aware that heavy winds can damage power lines.

This warning will be in effect until 8:45 p.m.

Take cover immediately.

Press * to repeat this message.

Press 2 to be removed from the Early Warning Emergency Blackboard.

Press 3 to speak with the Town Tax Collection Department.

Press 4 to be connected to the waste management team.

Press 5 to speak to the Police Department.

Press 6 for directions to the Town Hall.

Press * to repeat this message.

—Cynthia Sample

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Cynthia Sample received a MFA in Fiction from Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2005. Her stories have appeared in Between the Lines, the Wichita Falls Literary & Arts Journal, Numéro Cinq and Love After 70. She has work forthcoming in The Summerset Literary Review and Sleet. In 2007, she was one of four Emerging Writers to present her work at the WordSpace Literary Festival in Dallas, Texas, where she is a lifelong resident.

Cynthia Sample lives in Texas and reads Lydia Davis and Jorge Luis Borges and, when she comes to write, combines genres and forms in ironic and hilarious juxtaposition. She writes little stories, microstories, that delight the eye and the mind, stories that startle you with their originality and unique angles of attack. In this one she uses the genre of the concordance to tell a steamy tale of love, lust, adultery and divorce — it will make you smile.

DANCE (danced, dancing)

Ecc      3:4          a time to d and a time to mourn
2Sa      6:14        d before the Lord
Ps        30:11      You turned my waiting into d

LUST (lusted, lusts)

Pr        6:25         Do not l in your heart
1Th     4:5           not in passionate l like the heathen
1PE     4:3           in debauchery, l, drunkenness

LOVE (beloved, loved, lovely, lover, lover’s, lovers, loves, loving, loving-kindness)

Ge       20:13       This is how you can show you l
Ge       22:2         your only son, Isaac, who you l
Jos     22:5          careful to l the Lord your God

ADULTERY (adulterers, adulteress, adulteries)

Lev      20:10      both the a and the adulteress must
Heb     13:14       for God will judge the a
Hos      3:1          she is loved by another and is an a
Jer       3:8          sent her away because of all hr a
Ex        20:14      You shall not commit a
Mt        5:32        The divorced woman commit a
Mk       10:11       marries another woman commits a
Jn         8:4         woman was caught in the act of a

DIVORCE (divorced, divorces)

Dt         22:19      He must not d her as long as he lives
Dt         24:1        and writes her a certificate of d
Mal    2:16        “I hate d,” says the Lord God
Mt        19:3        for a man to d his wife for any reason
1Co      7:27        Are you married? Do not seek a d

LOVE (beloved, loved, lovely, lover, lover’s, lovers, loves, loving, loving-kindness)

Jdg 4:16 You hate me! You don’t really l me

LIE (liar, liars lied, lies, lying)

Lev      19:11       Do not l
Nu        23:19     God is not a man that he should l
1Jn      2:21     because no l comes from the truth
Ac        5:4          You have not l to men but to God

END (ends)

Ps       119:112 to the very e
Ps       1:19          such is the e of all who go
Ps        5:4           but in the e she is bitter as gall
Ps        14:13      and joy may e in grief
Ps        16:25      in the e it leads to death
Ps        19:20      and in the e you will be wise

FORGIVE (forgiveness, forgave, forgives, forgiving)

Ge       50:17       I ask you to f your brothers the sins
Ex        10:17      He will not f your rebellion
Isa       15:25      f my sin and come back with me
Col      1:14         in whom we have redemption the f
Eph      4:32       to one another, f each other

SECRET (secrets, secretly)

Dt         29:29     the s things belong
Ps         90:8     our s sins in the light
Pr         21:14     a gift given in s soothes anger
Jer       23:24    Can anyone hide in s places?
Mk       4:11        the s of the kingdom
Php      4:12       I have learned the s

—Cynthia Sample

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Cynthia Sample received a MFA in Fiction from Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2005. Her stories have appeared in Between the Lines, the Wichita Falls Literary & Arts Journal and Love After 70. She has work forthcoming in The Summerset Literary Review and Sleet. In 2007, she was one of four Emerging Writers to present her work at the WordSpace Literary Festival in Dallas, Texas, where she is a lifelong resident.