SFWC Community Microfiction: Rosetta Post-its
This is the first entry in our microfiction series written by San Francisco Writers Conference community members.
Rosetta Post-its
by Guy Biederman
Los Gatos Tienen Hambre, says the post-it on the fridge.
Since when did the cats learn Spanish, since when did they learn to write?
The same could be asked of you, says another post-it.
You tighten the belt on your bathrobe. You were House Samurai in a previous life, but the cats as writers, now roommates who borrow your stuff and leave snarky notes?
Stick to what you know, says a post-it: thank you-notes, grocery lists, and poems that rhyme with dime. Leave speculative fiction to the pros.
You take back your pen. The post-its you stole from work sit on the counter with notes in languages you don’t even speak—
Anymore . . . says a post-it, claw and ink.
A black tail curls from under the curtain.
Two orange ears rise pyramid-like from behind the microwave.
You pull out organic turkey burgers and sprinkle carefully clipped kitty grass onto bite-sized morsels placed on heirloom plates… and write your own post-it: Satisfied?!
You find your favorite mug and reach for Mr. Coffee.
Such a good boy, says a post-it on the sugar bowl in what must be cuneiform.
And how you know this, you dare not ask.
Btw, you’re out of cream.
Born in the Chihuahua Desert and raised on a stingray in Ventura, Guy began writing in a goatherders shack during a civil war in Guatemala as a peace corps volunteer. He’s the author of six books including Translated from the Original, one-inch punch fiction, Black Lawrence Press. His work has appeared in many literary journals including Carve, Bull Lit, MacQueen’s Quinterly, and Gooseberry Pie, as well as in Best Micro Fiction 2024 and 2025. Guy divides his time between a Sausalito houseboat, an adobe casa in El Paso, a cabin in New Mexico, and the road in between. It’s all true, especially the fiction.
