(Not a) Succulent Sunday: 1000 words

Photo by Meg Boscov

[Editor’s Note: This ongoing Sunday feature pairs photographs from Meg Boscov with a thought (or two) from the managing editor about focusing on tiny things to find something significant. Click on the picture itself to view at full size.]

 

 

A picture, the saying goes, is worth a thousand words, a word-count that also serves as the upper limit for many definitions of flash fiction. And photography also shares the “flash” with flash fiction, but what of the fiction? Is there any fiction in a photograph? Is the fiction all in the focus, on what’s beyond the borders, outside the frame? The flash illuminates but also leaves out; it creates a frame, a border, a fence.
 

Here, the flower reflects upon its reflection. Or is it its shadow? Beyond the frame, a whole other world exists, like the sun casting that shadow, the hill that holds the rocks, the gardener, the house, the people who inhabit it, the other succulents in the rocks, the toad in the rock, the snake, the bees and the ants and so on. What might you focus upon today? In that focus, where is the fiction? That is what this (not a) succulent asks you to reflect upon this Sunday.

 

♥

 

Meg Boscov lives and works outside of Philadelphia where she continues to pursue her careers in animal-assisted education & dog training, along with her burgeoning interests in photography & gardening.

 

 

Check out the write-up of the journal in The Writer.

Matter Press recently released titles from Meg Boscov, Abby Frucht, Robert McBrearty, Tori Bond, Kathy Fish, and Christopher Allen. Click here.

Matter Press is now offering private flash fiction workshops and critiques of flash fiction collections here.

Submissions

Poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction/prose poetry submissions are now closed. The reading period for standard submissions opens again September 15, 2025. Submit here.

Upcoming

05/04 • Leath Tonino
05/11 • Chris Pellizzari
05/18 • Chris Clemens
05/25 • Clayton Eccard
06/01 • TBD
06/08 • TBD
06/15 • TBD
06/22 • TBD
06/29 • TBD
07/06 • TBD
07/13 • TBD
07/20 • TBD
07/27 • TBD
08/03 • TBD
08/10 • TBD
08/17 • TBD
08/24 • TBD
08/31 • TBD
09/07 • TBD
09/14 • TBD
09/21 • TBD