Fiction: Hunger

By Karen Crawford

 

They’re eating the cooks! They’re eating the maids! They’re eating the nannies! Yes, the natives with their silver spoons and their copper hair are insatiable. They’re eating the busboys! They’re eating the janitors! They’re eating the gardeners! The natives, with their blue-collar hats and their stars and striped shirts are jonesing for alien blood. The natives eat them out of house and home. Out of schools, and church. Out of hospitals and stores. They chew up the dreamers, eliminate believers, swallow the American Dream. The natives’ bellies fill with pride. They celebrate, regurgitate, perpetuate. They eat until there's nothing left, then turn on one another.

 

 

 

 

 

Karen Crawford lives and writes in the City of Angels. Her work has been included or is forthcoming in Best Microfiction Anthology 2025, Ghost Parachute, Bending Genres, Flash Boulevard and elsewhere. She is a multi-Pushcart, and Best of the Net nominee. Find her on Bluesky @karenc.bsky.social and X @KarenCrawford_