Breaking Out

by Louella Lester


She is no victim, these gusts of wind won’t jostle her off course, they are her own creation, born of her own sturdy legs pumping back and forth on the swing until her muscles burn like matches lit. Until the smoke whips away all the fake syrupy sweetness. Until her skirt and hair flies in tangles behind her erasing blushes and anything considered to be demure. Until her ears muffle anything she does not want to remember, so remain open only to the wind’s most encouraging songs. 


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Louella Lester is a writer/photographer in Winnipeg, Canada, author of Glass Bricks (At Bay Press), a contributing editor at New Flash Fiction Review, and has a story included in Best Microfiction 2024. Her writing appears in a variety of journals/anthologies, including most recently: Roi Faineant, 50-Word Story, the Dribble Drabble Review, MacQueen’s Quinterly, Gooseberry Pie, Paragraph Planet, Hooghly Review, Bright Flash, Cult. Magazine, and SoFloPoJo.