In response to Julia’s 100 Word Challenge:
As the line was crossed and t’s were dotted, the s’s felt incomplete. Not unusual for s’s, a motley group of tail-enders often bringing up the rear, like late arrivals to a party long since ended. Like the football team that can’t claim title to their effort, only to their losses—those last to reach the finish line insist it tastes of victory, that finishing deserves its own gold medal. But this meager plot of land so often claimed by other also-rans is merely well-worn turf. My jealous heart desires real victory, claiming untilled soil that I cannot admit does not exist.
Jilanne Hoffmann 
How are you whipping these great little pieces out? That’s two in one day I’ve seen from you. Awesome!
Thanks, Laurel! The prompts have been good to me today. Some days, the wind blows the other way.
love the sporting metaphor tied in with that sense that something is unfinished and somehow insufficient. Great stuff!
Thank you, Dee! I have Julia to thank for the sporting inspiration. 🙂
Brilliant! For many years we were the ones making victory out of getting to the end of the season, let alone improving. You have captured the prompt really well. Love the bit about ‘S’!
Thank you! I have to disclose that my heart belongs to baseball. I am a Chicago Cubs fan, a team that has failed for many years to do more than limp to the end of the season, let alone win a National League pennant or the world series. Known as “the lovable losers,” the team is considered “cursed” for many reasons.
I hope that as a writer, I am not. 🙂
Oh, I really like this! That is all.
Thanks, Mike!
this made me smile. I think the last ones in the victory lap often feel the “untilled soil” as the photos are all taken and the applause has died down…poor s’s. 🙂 nicely done.
Yes, I was feeling very sad for the s’s, too. Thanks!
” My jealous heart desires real victory, claiming untilled soil that I cannot admit does not exist. ” Wow!! What a line!
So is it about flexing one’s desires over aspects we remain unsure of? Does it mean that we somehow associate acceptance of our unreasonable behaviour as victory over the other person? And if this be so, what is at the core of this mindset?
Shakti
Shakti, I feel compelled to answer these questions in a most unsatisfactory and unsatisfying way—with another question: In the silent pact between writer and reader, shouldn’t a text’s interpretation be solely the provenance of the reader?
Thank you for visiting! And please do stop by again. I am on my way to view your trace.
Fun, Jilanne. 🙂 I could do with practising micro fiction. I’m not very good at being concise!
You excel at bringing smiles to your readers. That’s all that matters! 🙂