I’ve got a weakness for geeky guys—the quirky kind, occasionally with quiffs. Think Ozzie Zehner. Nerd’s too strong a word. I call them quinks—the quizzy ones into quarks and quantum tunneling that eat quinoa and quiche. So, over a quink (I kid you not) he tells me there’s a fundamental particle, albeit hypothetical, also called a quink. I melt. He tells me he dabbles (with Quink® and a quill, no less). I quiver inwardly, ask to see them (stay with me) and he shows me a quink, its elegant neck an inky pipe of black. I quip that quinks (being geese not ducks) don’t quack but honk or hink (dependent on their gender). He quips quickly back that ducks can either quack or quink...

quick thinking
I fall for his mind
every time

—One of three Finalists in MacQ’s Quink Writing Challenge

Lee Nash

writes poems, micro-poems, and flash fiction. Her work has appeared in diverse journals and anthologies, including Acorn, Ambit, Angle, Magma, Mezzo Cammin, Slice, and The Best Small Fictions 2019. Her first poetry chapbook, Ash Keys, was published by Flutter Press in 2017. She was a 2018 Bath Flash Fiction Award prizewinner, a Laureate’s Choice prizewinner in the 2019 Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest, and a joint winner of the 2019 Princemere Poetry Prize.

Author’s website: https://leenashwriting.com/