The Knowing Smile of Bette Davis Lights Our Way - Flash Fiction by Dan Smith

 

The Knowing Smile of Bette Davis Lights Our Way

Flash Fiction

by Dan Smith

Yogi Berra reminds us that we have all been here before. Collette sighs and makes a note in her journal. Hawking reiterates that no information is lost. I slip into reverie and wear it like a shield. I tell them the theme of my dreams. They say there there as they arrange the nights festivities. War and pestilence as usual are slated to join us later. Planning is difficult as the guest list keeps getting longer. To keep our spirits up we sing Midnight at the Oasis and gather the towns-folk to do sketch comedy. Napoleon rides in on a donkey holding a sign Will Work for Food. We give him some brandy the town is famous for. The mayor, Hieronymus Bosch, gives a speech that tortures syntax. We get ready to board a 747 for the next town on the tour. Mr. Capone is already taking bets as to who our next guide will be. I put two dollars down on Hitler. Gandhi is a longshot.

dan smith has been widely published in such diverse journals as The Rhysling Anthology and Scifaikuest to Gas Station Famous and Renegade Flowers: d. a. levy and the Digital Revolution. He is the author of Crooked River and The Liquid of Her Skin, the Suns of Her Eyes published by Deep Cleveland Press and Night Ballet Press respectively. dan's most recent poems have been at Cold Moon Journal, dadakuku, and Scarlet Dragonfly Journal.