Non-fiction | 100 Word Story Anthology

Kennedy Park was given to the county by Burdette Kennedy, an unkempt recluse. People ignored him. He would come into town periodically, and he often stopped at our house. He always asked, “Where does Ernie Tracey live?” My mother would give him directions and a sandwich.

Ron Thompson once went out to Burdette’s farm to ask permission to fish on his property. Burdette was cooking supper. Six cats and Burdette circled the pot eating pea soup together.

Two generations later, people enjoy the park as though it were donated by a philanthropist in a three-piece suit, not a man shunned.

Jim Krotzman is a retired English teacher at Watertown (WI) High School. He is a struggling haiku poet and fisherman.

I look at the stream behind the house and see water rushing violently. It has no memory or shame. It cares nothing for the damage done to the structure or foundation that time has created alongside the tormented boundaries of its existence.

The stream just flows, always ahead without looking back. It has forgotten and forgiven but I have not forgotten or forgiven myself for having done nothing other than make your life miserable.

However, I am not the stream nor have I learned its lessons, yet in my mind I am floating on the water without regrets or blame.

Visit Pat’s website here.

—Pat Horner is a painter/collage artist and writer exhibited and published in the US and abroad. Horner is a member of the Board of Directors of the Woodstock Artists’ Association Museum and a journalist, photographer, coach, teacher, publisher and editor at publications including the “The Woodstock Guide.” She’s currently writing fiction and memoir from Woodstock, NY.

Generations

Floating