Stone Bridge Cafe is a bi-weekly online series from Stone Bridge Press devoted to bringing readers short stories, poems, non-fiction pieces, photographs, and artwork from and/or about East Asia. For submission guidelines and info, follow the link at the bottom of this post.
This week we're serving up a rhapsodic flash fiction story/prose poem byLevi Andrew Noe that cavorts through South East Asia to lyrically capture the awe one feels on the road in the midst of the present moment
☀☀☀
Sing a Traveling Song
The sun came up all slippery and wobbling like an egg cooking on the horizon's frying pan. I awoke to that sun and the miserable heat beating in through the tattered blinds and you singing in your low lumberjack voice from the shower, which was a foot away, separated by a paper-thin wall. It was Johnny Cash, we were in Thailand again, and it all seemed to make more sense after we had gone from Chiang Mai, flowed round on the Mekong through Laos and into Cambodia, saw the sun rise at Angkor Wat, and you got so drunk in Vang Vieng you actually passed out in the gutter, but you still made the bus the next morning. Along the way we learned that all we had to do was what we would as long as we laughed at what we couldn’t control. We ate, we drank, we walked until the shoes fell off our feet, and we nearly drowned in the people and greenness and markets until we learned how to swim and I don't think I've ever felt so close to it: That feeling that only comes when you're not running from or waiting for anything. When you’re not dreaming of who or where you’re supposed to be. When you’re wide awake, even after weeks of sleeping on moldy hostel mattresses, and your only aim is to sip and slurp and squeeze out every last drop and take in with open eyes that living brilliance that only has meaning when you're breathing it in.
☀☀☀
Levi Andrew Noe was born and raised in Denver, CO. He is a writer, wanderer, yogi, entrepreneur, and amateur oneironaut. His flash fiction collection 'Rain Check' was published in August 2016 from Truth Serum Press. His flash fiction, short stories, creative non-fiction and works of poetry can be found in Connotation Press, Boston Literary Magazine, Bartleby Snopes, and Literary Orphans, among many others. Levi is the editor in chief and founder of the podcast 'Rocky Mountain Revival Audio Art Journal'. You can get in contact with Levi through Twitter at@LeviAndrewNoe or through his website, http://leviandrewnoe.com. If you would like to submit your own work to Stone Bridge Cafe, follow this link for submission info and guidelines: http://www.stonebridge.com/sbp-blog/stone-bridge-cafe-guidelines-submission-info