The Umbrella

by Luanne Castle

When she saw the umbrella she envisioned their hereafter. Tattered, dirty, obviously pulled from a nearby trashcan, the umbrella’s frame still functioned. He held the umbrella without any help from her. They were separated by a foot. The over-sized umbrella was a castoff from a golfer’s cart, so they both kept dry. She debated herself. The umbrella’s skeleton seemed sturdy. But the tatters. Eventually holes would form, and in a storm, she would be drenched.
 
Now the rain’s velocity had reduced to a trickle, yet they both stayed motionless, he gazing off in a direction opposite her, she toward her future.

~After photo of umbrella, man, and woman by Naveen Ketterer on Unsplash

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LUANNE CASTLE has published four award-winning poetry collections. Scrap: Salvaging a Family,  a memoir-in-flash, was recently published by ELJ Editions (2026). Her ekphrastic flash and poetry collection Hunting the Cosmos is forthcoming from Shanti Arts in fall 2026.

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