Welcome to Micro Monday, week 9! This week we feature micros from Alison L. Fraser and Christopher Stevenson. Both writers have recorded video readings of their pieces, so be sure to check them out below!
What I love about these two pieces is how they enlist nostalgia as a storyteller.
In Alison’s piece, they use the entrenched nostalgia of youth to build the emotional tension. These are small moments, aggrandized across time. Like a siren, Alison permits our want and encourages us to be swept away in the dreamlike quality of first love, only to leave us breathless, awaking at the edge of the cliff we’ve just climbed, looking around wondering how we got there.
In Christopher’s piece, he reveals, with biting honesty, the sharp memories of a longer love—a marriage, a divorce, hardship, new life, new love, or lack thereof. This nostalgia does not feel like a dream, but a wide-awake reckoning. And the ending, a brutal confession, leaves these resigned remembrances in tatters on the floor.
Thanks for reading.
-Vic