Submitted for Valentine’s Day Challenge — A LOVE[LY] Submission Call 2018
Carnation Envy
By Rachel Sarah
Valentine’s Day at Northgate High School, the flower grams say it all.
Two boys shuffle into class with a box of carnations.
Red, white, and yellow. Every color means something.
Names are called. Hands shoot up.
The flowers swell in piles and you pretend like you don’t want one.
Rise above it, you tell yourself. Stop comparing. You stare at the pencil mark in the middle of your table as the flowers amass.
There are none for you.
I picture you today, your arms heaped in carnations of every color, more than you can possibly carry.
This was a true moment in time from my sophomore year of high school- Valentine’s Day, when the flower grams said it all.
My teen daughter inspired me to write this 94 word “flash.” She has a mountain more of confidence than I did at her age.
About me:
I’m a San Francisco Bay Area-based freelance writer who has written for The New York Times and The Washington Post.I co-teach a writing class at Left Margin LIT in Berkeley, CA and I read constantly. My first book, “Single Mom Seeking,” was optioned by 20th Century Fox for a TV comedy show. I’m the mother of two daughters who are 12 years apart.
