Short Stories by Lola Nation - Make it Short

  More fountains than Paris and less than Rome, We sipped vodka and trailed along conversation lines. You feel the wire tap, make excuses while you try to dial back the attention span. In the bedroom, you felt sick. Slept next to me, intermittently sighing, I felt your sadness through the alarm this morning, You slammed cranberry vodkas, one after another and made me coffee.    You blur when I’m wide awake. Who found out What Your breath heaves in  exhales long, tumbling downhill. I ask too much. You make no sense. I am left in this prison  we play house in and call home. You fill the air with nervous conversation. Highlight promises, loose bows knotted  in thin air, too much pull unravels it alll.    I hold my breath while you wait. Walking home in pitch black, the snow  falls at my feet, my hands ice cold, you listen to music, staring ahead and stuck behind. I unlock the door and you make excuses like origami, fragile and pretty. You claim stake for sleep. I take a long bath, pruning

I want to thank the board of directors of whatever committee got together and sent me a formal invite to give this commencement speech on the graduating class here at your fine academy this year of 2020.   I don’t know if it’s like the Grammy’s, but the person you give the achievement award to, is not the person most deserving, or even first on the list but a fifth to tenth option that is elected upon after the more deserving and better suited performers politely decline, I did not decline, I accepted and here we are at the end of 2020 and you’re getting a speech from a person who was so smart, she went to an “online school”, in person.  (It was accredited!)   I completed all the credits to receive a bachelor’s degree in business management, but disputed a random administrative fee which placed a hold on my graduation ceremony and certificate and now, $150 and sixteen years later, my background report makes me sound like a liar and idiot to potential employers.   Regardless, my initial