Old
Salt,
damned since
orange groves
covered the valley,
seals his soul’s fate in Chinatown’s
ending: the car skids to a halt, Evelyn inert,
her sister/daughter whisked away.
Damming, diverting,
controlling,
all but
his
will.

# # #

Todd Mercer won the Grand Rapids Festival Flash Fiction Award. His digital chapbook, Life-wish Maintenance, appeared at Right Hand Pointing. Mercer’s recent work appears in 100 Word Story, Literary Orphans and Praxis.