you’re watching in awe as the white trail streaks across a brilliant blue sky, thinking how that teacher astronaut will soon be in space, and an orange and white ball appears, two lines trailing off beyond it, and something doesn’t seem right, and your teacher’s hand is over her mouth, and everyone’s asking questions, and the t.v cart’s wheeled out of the room, and you’re told to pull out your textbooks, open to Chapter 8 pretend like your dream didn’t just implode into a billion pieces, its fragments littering the ocean, sinking down below the surface where they belong.
Amy Allen's work appears in numerous journals, has received Pushcart, Best Microfiction, and Best of the Net nominations. She’s the author of Mountain Offerings (2024). “5, 4, 3, 2, 1” is the winner of our BROKEN contest, part of our 2026 Micromemoir Marathon. www.allofthewritewords.com/publications Instagram & Threads: @aallen50k X (Twitter): @AmyAllenVT Bluesky: @amyavt.bsky.social