This month, we’re featuring a 100-word story that captures the feeling of stepping back into the natural world—that deep breath of fresh air that puts everything back into perspective.
“Carried by Light” was selected as a finalist in Globe Soup’s September 2025 Micro Competition.
Carried by Light
Mist clings to wet rocks on the river’s edge. Rain paints the forest floor in a mosaic of dark stones and leaves. Light filters through the canopy, kissing a translucent droplet trembling at a fern’s tip. Upriver, a veil of water bends light into prisms, curtaining rocks behind in shadow.
I lean closer, breathing loam-rich earth, feeling the spray cool my skin.
The drop falls with a soft plink. The light breaks loose, rippling across the riverbed, carrying away the darkness within me.
Time softens around me.
The river whispers long after the droplet vanishes into the green cathedral’s hush.
S L Jones is a Sydney-based writer whose work has appeared in Penstricken Press, Specul8 Publishing, Globe Soup, Ratbag Lit, and Twist in the Tale.
Bluesky: @sljoneswriter.bsky.social
We’ll be lingering a little longer outdoors today. Thank you, S L Jones.
-Poplar & Prose
0 comments