I’ve been thinking about nostalgia. What it is. What it means. What exactly it feels like. I don’t know why it’s been on my mind, but I do know it’s complicated and visceral, so I want to write about it. No doubt a longer story is needed, and one will come, but I can’t remember the last time I challenged myself to write a drabble. So, that’s what you’re getting today. Exactly 100 words – no more, no less – inspired by the complexity of nostalgia.
Mom tells me I’m obsessed with it.
“You’re chasing the dead,” she says. “Filling your soul with its rot.”
But she doesn’t see what I see.
She doesn’t see it stirring as the legs of spring start buckling.
She doesn’t see its promise in long nights on cracked concrete, blue skies vast enough to drown in, or the sound of grass being butchered, spilling blood that smells like sunscreen and sweat.
Every year, it comes and I hope it haunts me. Smothers me. I hope it brings me back to that long, rotting summer that made me feel so alive.
Before you go
My latest book, The Flowers at Flood House, is out now. It’s a horror novella about memories, grief, and lots of flowers. Feel free to check out reviews on Goodreads or click the button below to grab a copy.
If you want to read more of my fiction on Substack, you can check out Lightbulb, 483, A Gentle Rain, Cold House, or Blood Orange, Vanilla, and Musk.
If you want to connect, I love hearing from readers. I keep an Instagram updated and post regularly to Threads and Notes. You can also find me on TikTok.
/ JJW
i liked this very much.
very poetic.
the use of the senses was excellent. I can smell mown grass... that you aligned this with flavours of death was an interesting choice.
The sense of memory in this resonated with a poem i recently was compelled to write. i didnt know how it would come out but it had to; and a poem it was, this thing that had to come out. I don't usually write poetry.
Maybe you would like it and maybe it would resonate with you and your piece?
It's called "of history" and it's on my stack. I won't drop the link into your post. I feel on balance this is usually a rude thing to do and I don't do it unless something is "Really Striking" in terms of resonance or coincidence and compulsion.
Keep up the good work!😎