Gone Lawn
a journal of literature
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Gone Lawn 35
Winter Solstice, 2019

New Works

Meg Pokrass


Level Two

At the airport, I discovered a Great Blue Heron located near a couple of spilled chili fries near the Level 2 cafe, where my lover had left me. I had a four-hour wait at the airport before boarding. The heron looked like it was lost. At first, my lover had said he would stay until the flight left, that we would have plenty of time to talk about the future and enjoy a meal. But his ex was in the hospital again, and this time it was even more serious. "She never stops pulling the martyr routine, don't you agree?" I asked the tall, meandering bird. It was shallow, eager for something. The airport hummed, I got hot flashes. After a five-day test, it made everything strange. I told the bird that one day I would be kissed at an airport, all the way until my flight took flight.



Extra Terrestrial

There are no signs of extra-terrestrial life: Only two itchy dogs in the garden. One dog carries a blanket, lies down on it. Ma is sure she saw a spaceship float down into the neglected orchard after martinis last night. I'm on security patrol. My branch of the oak will be comfortable to sit with a pomegranate and an orange. Carrying them in my pockets up to the lookout, scouting for aliens in the leaves. We'll move as the rent increases, but for now; sour wood sorrel invades our grass, fleas terrorize the dogs, Ma stays in, and I imagine this house belonging to creatures who know what to do about life here on Earth.


Meg Pokrass is the author of five flash fiction collections, two novellas-in-flash, and is the recipient of the Blue LIght Book Award. Her work has been internationally anthologized in two Norton Anthology Readers, Best Small Fictions 2018 and 2019, the Wigleaf Top 50 List, and her work has appeared in over 350 literary magazines including Electric Literature, Craft, Literarian Center For Fiction, Tin House, Passages North, Wigleaf and Smokelong Quarterly. She currently serves as Flash Challenge Editor at Mslexia Magazine, Festival Curator for Flash Fiction Festival, U.K. (Bristol) Co-Editor of Best Microfiction, 2020, and Founding/Managing Editor of New Flash Fiction Review.