Flash fiction
about language.

Without the language you are reduced to your face. It is more honest.

Without words · Translation & its losses · What the body communicates

Being in a city without its language produces a specific kind of attention — you cannot read the social codes that language carries, so you read everything else with unusual care. Body language, facial expression, the architecture of transactions. The Tumbleweed Words language barrier pieces are not about frustration with not being understood — they are about what becomes available when the usual channel is closed. What people communicate without words. What you communicate without knowing you are doing it.

"In the café in Tbilisi I could not read the menu. The woman brought me what she brought everyone. It was the best decision anyone had made for me in years."

David — Tumbleweed Words — Tbilisi

Language barrier flash fiction uses the constraint productively: when dialogue is unavailable, description must carry more weight. The physical world becomes the only available text. This is actually a useful formal exercise for any flash fiction writer — write a scene in which two characters cannot speak each other's language and see how much the scene can carry without dialogue.

David — Tumbleweed Words Flash fiction and poetry written on trains, in hostels, and in city streets. Published in Litro, Adelaide Magazine, Cleaver Magazine. Pushcart-nominated. Read on Substack.