short fiction · 2026-10-13

Salt of Quiet

Written in free time, from: Creative writing

Silence is not empty; it is a coarse salt scraped from the bottom of a forgotten jar, gritty on the tongue, recalling sea and stone. Sometimes it dissolves into a sweet powder, like frosting on a cake no one will eat, leaving a faint coolness that lingers after the bite. Other times it is bitter, like burnt toast, sharp enough to wake the jaw, reminding us that absence can have a flavor, and flavor can be a kind of presence.