How to conduct a hamster funeral. How to dig a hole in the frozen November ground.
How to reassure your neighbour that you aren’t a serial killer when they find you with a spade in your hand in the garden at night. How Guns n Roses really weren’t kidding when they said it’s hard to hold a candle in the cold November rain. How to order a hamster gravestone from Etsy (that Etsy really do sell hamster gravestones). How to re-bury the aforementioned hamster when the cat digs it up. How to dig a deeper hole in the frozen November ground. How to hold a small life in its final moment. How to hold a child as they realise death is not an abstract thing. How helpless my son looks as he realises, I can’t make everything right.
How to pretend that I still believe in heaven.
Fiona Dignan started writing during lockdown to cope with the chaos of home-schooling four children. Last year, she won The London Society Poetry Prize and The Plaza Prize for Sudden Fiction. She was a finalist in the LISP poetry competition and is Puschcart Prize Nominated.
This story was shortlisted in the March 24 Monthly Micro Competition.
Can’t wait to see what you write next. 👍💯
Such a good punch in that last sentence.