Misapprehension
upon mischance
upon mistake
upon misunderstanding
were all piled on top of high hope
and higher wish,
then sandwiched with ballbearing layers
of worry
and weary.
Girl, forgetting she was no acrobat,
clambered up the teetering stack
and, naturally, lost her balance,
landing quite hard on Boy
without even saying excuse me
(though grateful he had broken her fall.)
Briefly, as she tumbled down,
it seemed to Girl the sky was falling
or the earth was rising
awfully fast.
They picked themselves up
and dusted one another off a bit,
checking for bruises
(no broken bones, thankfully.)
Too tall a stack, thought Girl,
Must remember to practice closer to the ground.
For his part, Boy
felt a sign should have been posted,
and decided to watch where he was walking
and glance upward more often,
just in case.
A "Brian" is a short-form story of exactly 50 words, with a title up to 15 words, which occasionally requires some acrobatic wordplay. Also called a mini-saga, the Brian is named for British author Brian Aldiss and is popularized in competitions held by The Daily Telegraph newspaper of London. This one aims for a triple, but only manages
slightly more than a two-and-a-half gainer.
slightly more than a two-and-a-half gainer.
You can write your own mini-saga and post it to the Comments!
