Carry On by Lucinda Kempe

Once there was a man who loved his donkey, but his donkey didn’t love him back. The donkey loved an eggshell, but the eggshell didn’t love it back. The eggshell loved a windmill, but the windmill didn’t love it back. The windmill loved looking out to sea, but the sea didn’t love being spied upon. The sea loved the seagull always hovering, but the seagull didn’t love it back. The seagull loved the African wind, who, you guessed it, didn’t love it back. The African wind loved the sun, who didn’t love it back. The sun loved the man with a donkey on his back which was such a strange otherworldly sight that everyone who saw them burst out laughing marveling at the strength of this man and the ridiculousness of the donkey that there was nothing to say about the business.

Except it was accomplished by a new kind of love.  A love that didn’t wear out with exhaustion when the mate’s otherness revealed itself, but went with the flow, and carried on,

Regardless.

Lucinda Kempe’s work has been published or is forthcoming in Flash Boulevard, Centaur, Bending Genres, The Disappointed Housewife, Unbroken Journal, New South Journal, New World Writing, Matter Press, and the Summerset Review. An excerpt from her memoir was short listed for the Fish Memoir Prize in April 2021. She lives on Long Island where she exorcises with words.