Metamorphosis

In Competition No. 2491 you were invited to submit a piece of prose describing what happens when you wake up one morning to find yourself transformed into an insect but not a beetle. Beetles were outlawed so that you weren’t scribbling quite so much in Kafka’s shadow. But in fact, the correct translation of Ungeziefer is vigorously disputed. In his lecture on The Metamorphosis Nabokov insisted that Gregor Samsa’s new incarnation was not as a cockroach, as it is sometimes rendered, but as a ‘big beetle’ with wings, capable of flight had he but known it. The more generous than usual wordcount means fewer winners. G.M Davis’s ant-with-attitude went down well but top of the form and winner of the bonus fiver is Brian Murdoch’s flea with a postmodern twist. The other prizewinners, who get £35 each, are printed below.

When I awoke from disturbed sleep I was surprised and bloody furious.