There is trouble ahead I fear STOP no don’t stop I live for your knock knock jokes under mortar fire and wonder what you are doing now STOP the barrage STOP the wailing of the children you can’t imagine the sound STOP I miss Audrey is she walking now STOP tell me a story I’m listening even though I am thousands of miles away STOP they say we will get to go home soon STOP they say we will be going to CENSORED and there I know I will pick wildflowers for you STOP poppies STOP I know they will not last but maybe they will last longer than CENSORED STOP Marty has died Cyril has died Antony Judah and Benjamin too STOP tell their wives their children STOP no don’t tell them STOP they will hear soon enough STOP tell me a story my love STOP it will be not much longer STOP QUOTE knock knock UNQUOTE Who’s there STOP
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Jennifer Fliss is a Seattle-based writer whose writing has appeared in PANK, The Rumpus, The Washington Post, and will be in the 2019 Best Short Fictions anthology. She is the 2018/2019 Pen Parentis Fellow and a 2019 recipient of a Grant for Artist Project award from Artist’s Trust. She can be found on Twitter at @writesforlife.