Blog

  • Flash Fiction Review: “Rewind” by Cole Beauchamp

    (The flash fiction story “Rewind” by Cole Beauchamp appeared at Lost Balloon on January 7th, 2026.)

    The flash fiction that I love straddles a precarious knife’s edge. On one side is the prose, the other being the poetic, and if they counter balance correctly, a beautiful harmony is created. Reading Cole Beauchamp’s “Rewind” put me right on that the edge’s sweet spot; a tactile narrative countered with an eternal instant.

    The structure of “Rewind” is divided into three section, each beginning with the same first line, “I have something to tell you…” In the first section, a couple is descending down a mountain during a hike while the husband attempts to explain what is implied to be his infidelity, which the wife has no interest in hearing. The section ends with the wife accidently falling off the path, tumbling down, and all goes black, followed by one word: Rewind. The second section takes places in the past, this time the wife is making a special dinner attempting to make up to her husband for all the time that she’s been away. Just as in the first section, the second section concludes with the wife losing her footing and falling, again with all going black; Rewind. The final section takes places the night before their wedding, and them sneaking out to see each other, with the wife stating that they “can’t rewind any further.”

                The three moments selected in “Rewind” are snap shots of this marriage. The first being the only one that I believe takes place in a tactile moment. This marriage is over, even if the husband isn’t aware of it, for the wife knows that she has stopped loving him. When she falls and all goes black, that ushers in the next two section which I will argue take place in her memory, existing in her own eternal instant. The second section is close to a mirror image of the first section; same opening line, the disappoints, to apologies, and the falling. The first was his fault, and now we are being shown how she was an accomplice in the death of this relationship. But the second section acts as a bridge; though it is in the eternal, the language Beauchamp uses is still rooted in factual descriptions. When the third section arrives, the language softens, the poetic is embraced, and thematically, a melancholic tone is embraced which intertwines with the recollection of the past optimism this marriage had.

                No one goes into a marriage thinking that it will fail, and when things go wrong, that initial optimism can feel like it’s a million miles away in a different life. Cole Beauchamp’s “Rewind” played with this theme in a structure that I appreciated for its inventiveness, but most importantly, this was the type of flash fiction that embraced the unique qualities this form can have, which are prose and poetry wrapped tightly together.  

  • Earworm Wednesday: It’s Johnny’s Birthday

    If you have a John or a Johnny in your life and if today happens to be their birthday, then this song is for them.

    Happy Birthday, John!

  • Taking Responsibility for My Choices

    I stayed out and up too lat last night. I was having drinks with an old friend, and I had a great time. No regrets in that decision.

    Now, I am moving rather slow today, and I have run out of time to accomplish all thing things I wanted to do. I take full responsibility for this outcome. And also, no regrets in this decision, either.

    The older I get, the harder it is to see my old friends. And for that reason, I do my best never to pass up an opportunity to see my old friends.

  • Tottenham: I Got My Hopes Up

    (I know that today is May 4th, and I don’t celebrate.)

    With everything going on in my life, and there is a lot, nothing awful is happening, I’m just very busy. As such, I don’t have a ton of time to sit around and watch football. This weekend especially, as me and my family were jammed packed with events. I am saying all of this because, I didn’t have time to watch Tottenham play on Sunday. Sort of…

    With all of the running around I had to do on Sunday, I didn’t think I’d be home in time to watch the match, but as luck would have it, I got home which allowed me to watch the last fifteen minutes of the game. This means that I was first shocked to see Tottenham ahead by tow goals. Then I watched Aston Villa score a goal, and the affect was that I thought Spurs were about to lose, only to actually watch Tottenham win.

    They won a match.

    They aren’t in 18th place anymore.

    I have a little hope.

    I am also aware of how much of a huge mistake “hope” is.

    I decide the best course of action was to start watching Ted Lasso again.

  • ODDS and ENDS: Oxford Shirts, Sleep, and Walking in the City

    ODDS and ENDS: Oxford Shirts, Sleep, and Walking in the City

    (Right here where we need ya…)

    Man walking on city sidewalk holding coffee cup and shopping bag with fall trees
    AI generated this image, but I would NEVER wear loafers without socks, and I would NEVER wear loafers with shorts… But AI is gun’na do what AI is gun’na do… But I like how AI thinks I would have all that hair!

    I might have an addiction, or at least an unhealthy obsession with Oxford shirts. Like the very classic, button down collar, Oxford weave fabric, that once you have washed the shirts like a million times they end up becoming soft and a little thin. But I’m also really frugal, which means that I have several shopping carts on several different apparel sites waiting for their Oxford shirts to go on sale so I can scoop them up at a discount. And I do all of this because if I had my way, and could live the way I wanted in the climate and location I wanted, I just might be that dorky guy who wears an Oxford shirt with a sweater and shorts in Summer.

    Me and the wife are working on our sleep schedules. The doctors have been hammering home to us that we need to, have to, start getting seven to eight hours of sleep a night. And yes, as we get older, our bodies will start waking up earlier, so that means that we have to also go to bed earlier. Personally, I hate this idea, as the night is when I do my best thinking, while sitting in front of the tv watching bad movies and tv shows, often eating ice cream or some other sugary snack. BUT… this also has to do with taking care of myself so I can extract a few extra years to spend with my wife and kid, as they do make me happy, and kind’a make life worth living. So, for this past week, we have been making an effort to go to bed earlier. Normally, I get about five hours of sleep, and the wife is close to six or seven, depending on what show we are catching up on. What our efforts have yeilded is 8 hours for the wife and seven hours for me. I can’t speak for her, but for me, I don’t feel rested or excited about getting at the day, but what I did notice is that as the week progressed, I wasn’t waking up in the middle of the night and having to fight tot get back to sleep. As such, I will take that as a small step forward.

    I still love walking around this town. Might still be my favorite part about living here. I got to do it last week, and a little later today, I will have an excuse to do it again. This time I’ll be on the East Side of Manhattan, a place I very rarely get to. It’s a small joy, but a joy none the less that I am looking forward to.