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Hello, and welcome to A Nightmare

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Short Shop. My name

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is Alison Belbews, pleased to be

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your muse for this flash fiction

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podcast. This

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month's nightmare poem is The Let

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Go by E. Catherine Tobler, narrated

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by Stephanie Nicky. The

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Let Go by E. Catherine Tobler. This

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poem began as flash fiction and

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was then whittled even smaller, perhaps

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ironic given its subject. I

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wrote this to explore how we

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change in a relationship, how

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it isn't always healthy or best for

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us, or necessarily

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consensual. We

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give pieces of ourselves away,

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we have pieces taken, we

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cut ourselves down to nothing in the name

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of love, and it

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is both a horror and

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a revelation. E.C.T.

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I was not born in this field

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of grass, but I'm anchored

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by your leaving. Called,

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you said, to a higher purpose, to

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a higher being. What

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was it to be called, to

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be under such demand? I

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have never been some one's choice, have

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never been called to purpose.

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I was not born in this field of

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grass, but know what

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it is to let everything go. The

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summer into the autumn, the

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autumn into the winter. The

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grass withers the way my hands

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have withered away, called

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to purpose, so

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that I may hold to nothing and

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let everything go, always.

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You have probably heard the name

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Mary Queen of Scots, and maybe

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you know the importance of

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her legacy to the British monarchy, but how much

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did you know about her life and what she

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was really like? For instance, did you know that

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she preferred to have her eggs scrambled, or that

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giving gifts was her love language? In my

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podcast, Vogueur History, we'll be talking about

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all that and more during an eight-part mini-series

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about the fascinating life of Mary Queen of Scots.

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Vogueur History is a feminist women's history comedy

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podcast where we don't shy away from the

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messy, complicated lives of women from the olden

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times. Particularly with women

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in history, it's easier to use broad strokes

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to portray who they were, and it's like

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we forget they probably also had messy lives,

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complicated relationships, and maybe things weren't as black

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and white as they might seem in a textbook. something

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about Mary Cram Scott.

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Be sure to turn into my series about Mary

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Cram Scott and check out the other incredible women

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I've talked about while you're there. You can listen

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and subscribe to Vulgar History wherever you get your

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podcasts and learn more at vulgarhistory.com.

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E. Catherine Tobler's short fiction has

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appeared in Clark's World, the magazine

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of fantasy and science fiction and

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others. Her novella, The

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Necessity of Stars, was a finalist

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for the Nebula, Utopia, and Sturgeon

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Awards. She currently edits

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The Deadlands. This

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story was taken from the pages of

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Nightmare Magazine, which is edited by

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Wendy Ann Wagner. The

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podcast is produced by Skyboat Media

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and the story and podcast are

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copyright 2024. Host production

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was by Alison Bill Buse and

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our music was composed and performed by

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Jack Kincaid. Once again, I

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am Alison Bill Buse and I

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hope this poem gave you something true.

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Thank you for listening. you