Competition Fifteen Highly Commended: Breaking Eggs by Claire Schön

She pecks at the past.

The shedding of fluffy down for full, feathered finery.

She revisits being visible.

A boa, slinking, around her face, the length of her neck, past her collar bone to a teasing end.

She flicks thinning, white wisps from her forehead.

The pillow cool and full, air puffing out as he lowers her down, removes her gown and treats her like she’s wearing a crown.

She sings their song, rhyming along.

She never runs. The fox is away; that’s where he’ll stay. She rules.

She forgets that feeling.

Fluffing them up, she warms and waits, willing them to grow, to hatch.

She pines for her pen.

They grow and move on, more room, less life.

She cracks.

Days pass slowly: grains of wheat in a clogged hourglass.

She clucks at the fragments of her life, broken to make something bigger.

Claire is British and lives in Austria. She writes very short (micro and flash) and very long (novels) stories. She won Retreat West’s Pitch to Win competition in 2022 with her first novel pitch and was longlisted for Retreat West’s First Chapter competition in 2023 with her second novel.

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