Reading · Mark McClure, writer

I’m a mental maestro in disguise.

That’s because mood-makers like me grab reality by the cymballs and don’t let go.

Ugh. Such an ugly way to think.

He stood there, head cocked to the left, lips parted, lost for words. How had he heard me?

I’ll show him! Eh! What’s so unbelievable about it?

He tapped his right foot on the wooden flower as if that would somehow break the spell.

I waggled both index fingers at him in response. Hey buster, there’s only space here for one conductor.

Of course, there was no sense in letting arrogance get the better of me; I’d just end up sounding ridiculous. So I only read a few of his thoughts.

The rest I just deleted.

I got this story idea while attending a school choir music festival.

The image shows part of the mind map I used to “prime the pump” before handwriting the microfiction.

I then typed up this entry and published it to my web3 sites hosted on paragraph.xyz.

(2025-07-30 Update: My .xyz site exists no more. The microfiction has now been republished here with minor edits.).

The image is from a photo I took of a Tokyo train station poster designed to remind passengers that assaulting staff is not acceptable.

Think Harmonious