Decameron Redux

Week Four (Tuesday, 2/9/21 – Monday, 2/16/21)

Fortune again offers you the chance to take home some riches. Four randomly selected submissions will receive a $25 gift card from The Seminary Co-op, Bookshop.org, Build Coffee, or Plein Air Café (your choice).

In the tenth story of the fifth day of the Decameron, Pietro and his wife are unhappily wed, both preferring the pretty young men they find all over Perugia to their marriage bed. One day, while Pietro is out dining at a friend’s house, his wife invites a young man over and must hide him in a chicken coop when Pietro inauspiciously comes home before having any dinner. Pietro explains that his visit was cut short when a sneeze erupted from the cupboard under his friend’s stairs, revealing a lover who had come to entertain the lady of the house and instigating an all-out brawl. Pietro’s wife, not wanting to call attention to herself, condemns the unfaithful wife and tries to shoo her husband off to bed. But soon a donkey steps on the fingers of the young man straining to fit inside the couple’s chicken coop, and the young man cries out in pain. Pietro vents his verbal rage at his wife and her lover but chooses to end this familiar story in a manner that satisfies all three parties involved. Boccaccio’s wry narrator, Dioneo, stops just shy of conveying the details of the ensuing arrangement, but he makes it clear that both husband and wife enjoy the company of the handsome youth before morning.

For a shot at fame and this week’s fortune, let’s celebrate the ways sexual mores have changed since the 1350s. Boccaccio’s story may enjoy a progressive ending, but his modesty demands we pick the story up where he has broken it off. This week I welcome submissions bold enough to start with love existing in triangles, pentagons, octahedrons, and shapes that would make even Escher blush.

Remember: this site is dedicated to storytelling, but you needn’t limit yourself to the traditional prose narrative. We welcome photo series, videos, music and other audio work, visual stories, poetry, and anything else in standard shareable formats. The target length for a narrative submission is 200-1000 words. For other formats, consider what it means to present a bite-sized portion of your art, something that takes only a few minutes of your audience’s precious time. Head over to the Submit page when you’re ready to upload your contribution.