Logo, MacQueen's Quinterly
Listed at Duotrope
MacQueen’s Quinterly: Knock-your-socks-off Art and Literature
Issue 16: 1 Jan. 2023
Microfiction: 135 words
By Bayveen O’Connell

A Cobbler’s Tale

 

Would you like some? My wife made it: pastrami and mozzarella. She made the bread too, you can see the impression of her kneading knuckles indented in the ciabatta. I work with leather, and Sylvia with dough. I hammer heels, cut out soles, stick down tongues, I stitch horse hide and she stitches up my socks when my toes start poking out. I kiss her toes, long and dainty, massaging them before bed. Our rough fingers meet on Sundays, my only day off, as we hold hands and stroll along the Po. When piano music lilts down from Garibaldi’s on the hill, I twirl her under my arm and pull her in close, so close, that we can catch each other’s scent and blend into our own: flour, sweat, leather and love.

Bayveen O’Connell
Issue 16 (1 January 2023)

has words in Splonk, Scrawl Place, The Ekphrastic Review, Lumiere Review, Janus Literary, Fractured Lit, The Forge, Ellipsis Zine, Maryland Literary Review, Bending Genres, and others. She has recently received a Pushcart nomination for her microfiction, and is a Best Microfiction nominee for 2023. She loves costumes, capes, Bowie, ruins, and Síle-na-Gigs. Her writing is inspired by art, folklore, history, and travel. She’s currently putting together a flash fiction collection.

 
 
Copyright © 2019-2024 by MacQueen’s Quinterly and by those whose works appear here.
Logo and website designed and built by Clare MacQueen; copyrighted © 2019-2024.
⚡   Please report broken links to: MacQuinterly [at] gmail [dot] com   ⚡

At MacQ, we take your privacy seriously. We do not collect, sell, rent, or exchange your name and email address, or any other information about you, to third parties for marketing purposes. When you contact us, we will use your name and email address only in order to respond to your questions, comments, etc.