I’m not sure why Michael Caine is picking up 
my wife tonight but I behave like a gentleman, 

complimenting her new blue dress, escorting her 
down the driveway, small-talking about what movie 

we’ll watch when she comes home. Michael Caine 
climbs from the creamy stretch limousine, greets her 

with a British witticism, joins her in the back seat. 
His chauffeur accelerates up the hill toward 

a purple sunset while I remain alone under the trees, 
an actor wondering if he’ll have a role in the sequel, 

leaves drifting around him like illegible script. 

Barry Peters

teaches in Raleigh, North Carolina, and he and his wife, the writer Maureen Sherbondy, live in Durham. His poetry and fiction are published in The American Journal of Poetry, Baltimore Review, Best New Poets, Broad River Review, Connecticut River Review, KYSO Flash, New Ohio Review, Poetry East, and Rattle.

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Critical Thinking, short fiction (1,160 words) by Barry Peters in Baltimore Review (Summer 2018)

⚡ How Miriam Became a Poet, micro-fiction in KYSO Flash (Issue 10, Fall 2018)

⚡ Fingers, flash fiction in KYSO Flash (Issue 10, Fall 2018)

“Fingers” is among 100 personal favorites on Clare’s List, selected from among a thousand works published in KYSO Flash over the course of six years.