It’s poetry month! And as a result, I will be reading some poetry. Funnily enough, the first book of poetry I read was not poetry at all. It was flash fiction. It is such a slim volume, and I bought it at the same time as these other books of poetry on my shelf (about a year ago), that when I pulled it for April, I assumed it was poetry. Well, I was wrong.

Lovebirds by Hananah Zaheer is a book of flash fiction (read: very short prose fiction). Which makes sense, because Zaheer taught my flash class at the NC Writers’ Network conference last year. She impressed me (and gained my loyalty) and I snagged her book from the merch table. This book surprised me. The writing is on point, some of the (very short) stories a paragon example of flash. But it was way heavier than I imagined it would be. The book is full of figurative lovebirds, but the kind of lovebirds you would find perched in a cage in a Tim Burton movie. Or in a Neil Gaiman scape. Or worse. All these lovebirds are broken, are all keeping ominous secrets. Are bedraggled, abandoned, skeletal, flightless.

So be ready for that.

My favorite stories were:

• God in the Chicken Coop
• A Record of Her Months
• Things I Say to My Son While He Sleeps
• Willow Tree Fever
• Wednesday

I kept writing in the margin, “So brutal!” “Beautiful, but so sad,” “Dang,” even “Aaah!” Some of the stories were just meticulous, sparse, and perfect. They had been previously published in lit mags including Smokelong Quarterly and Waxwing.

Would I tell you to run out and find a copy of Zaheer’s 48-page book? If you have an interest in flash fiction or just love great modern writing, but only if you aren’t going to flip out at how incredibly sad some of the scenarios are. (Largely women being brutalized by men, but also things like abject poverty and terrorist radicalization). Also, some of the women here are frightening, too, are willing to mete out violence with the best of them. With settings in both Pakistan and America, you might marvel at the language and the structure, but you’ll also gasp at the harshest of realities.

Her writing is powerful. It’s beautiful. And it does not shy away.