Category Archives: Artistic

DEIRDRE SMITH: Takiwatanga

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , ,

He pushes his darkly scarred fingers into his ears. He spends most of the day like this.

He walks through the world inside his head.

He listens intently, to what or to whom we long to know,
but the fly on the wall of his mind will be trapped forever.

Deirdre Smith has dabbled in writing for as long as she can remember. She has recently started back to work as a teacher and Guidance Counsellor after a decade of being a stay-at-home mom to her three young children. She resides in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

ALISON CARROLL: Those Things We Do Not Discuss

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

That you asked the same question already four times today.

That your weakened heart may stop beating at any moment.

That you go to sleep each evening expecting not to wake.

That I know about Jennifer from the office.

That I stopped loving you twelve years and three days ago.

Alison is intrigued by how much goes unsaid in relationships.

KRISTIN TENOR: Vestige

Artistic, Submissions, ,

Your postcards still arrive in my mailbox, even though they’re addressed to a woman who no longer exists. “I’m sorry. I miss you. Forgive me.” Words stripped to the bone like a rabbit caught between the fox’s tight jaws, the remains buried deep until they are hardened, turned to stone.

Kristin Tenor finds inspiration in life’s quiet details and believes in their power to illuminate the extraordinary. Her work has appeared in various literary journals including 50-Word Stories, Bending Genres, Emerge Literary Journal, Milk Candy Review, X-R-A-Y Literary Magazine, among others. In addition, her flash fiction has been longlisted for the Wigleaf Top 50 and has been nominated for Best Small Fictions, Best of the Net, and a Pushcart Prize. She serves as an editorial consultant and the flash fiction editor at CRAFT. Learn more at kristintenor.com or follow her on Twitter at @KristinTenor.

CHARLES GRAY: Deadlines

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

After a year of retirement spent plopped on the couch bingeing on-demand TV and enjoying the freedom from corporate deadlines that filled sleepless nights with worry, I’m thinking I better start setting my own deadlines and get my butt moving or else the inevitable deadline will arrive sooner than later.

Charles Gray is retired and living in Austin, Texas. He enjoys playing chess and writing.

KEN GOSSE: Striking Out

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, , , , ,

“Once upon a time” may often be no more than that,
when “love’s first kiss” is love’s last kiss,
your “ever-after,” hit or miss;
the one who was your welcome mat
now bleeds you like a kneading cat.
Banality replaces bliss,
an undertow to the abyss,
like Casey’s last at-bat.

Ken Gosse prefers writing short, rhyming, humorous poetry. First published in First Literary Review–East in November 2016, he is also in The Offbeat, Pure Slush, Parody, Home Planet News Online, and other publications. Raised in the Chicago suburbs, now retired, he and his wife have lived with their dogs and cats in Mesa, AZ, over twenty years.

YASH SEYEDBAGHERI: Bar Light

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

Jukebox plays The Eagles. I nurse Amaretto Sours. One drawn-out sip, another. I absorb dim lights, make up stories. I’m a writer, pianist, actor. I join people in losing at pool, laugh over lost shots, forget bills, stacks of tests, and somnolent students. Laugh until dull stars lead me home.

Yash Seyedbagheri is a graduate of Colorado State University’s MFA program in fiction. His stories, “Soon,” “How To Be A Good Episcopalian,” and “Tales From A Communion Line,” were nominated for Pushcarts. Yash’s work has been published in The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Write City Magazine, and Ariel Chart, among others.

CANDACE KUBINEC: The Late Miss Emily

Artistic, Submissions,

She’s late. Taking the last empty chair, facing the painting of the cemetery, Emily tries to avoid looking at it. Her eyes are drawn to the crumbling tombstones. Shapes rise, like exhaust from underground boilers.

The Ancestors join them. They call to her. She has no choice but to respond.

Candace Kubinec posts her stories at storydribbles.wordpress.com and her poetry at rhymeswithbug.com.

DAVID RAE: On the wings of love

Artistic, Odd, Submissions, , ,

I watched as a winged angel sailed out into the moonlit sky. I stood there speechless and motionless, one hand still strapped to the bed.

I do not know who brought a coverlet and draped it around my nakedness. No one spoke for a very long time.

She is gone.

David is not sure what love is, but he is always trying to catch it.

PERRY McDAID: Pensive

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, , ,

There was a great gaping hole in his life. He hadn’t dug it himself; he’d certainly allowed them to backfill it on top of him.

He could be assertive; he’d just never seen the need.

He toyed with a bit of kidney on his plate, doubting that cannibalism would help.

Absorbing the Donegal hills from distance only now, Perry McDaid’s creativity subsists on nature’s palette and scents. Unfortunately this sometimes involves silage.

JIM LATHAM: Eight Blocks from Here to Home

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , ,

Sophie’s walking home in bloody clothes.

Telling herself:

Moonlight’s sunlight gone round the block.

Telling herself:

Eight Chicago blocks is one mile.

Telling herself:

Eight blocks from here to home.

Sophie’s telling herself:

She’s not going to Hell for shooting and killing three frat boys who cornered her in Wrigleyville.

If you like, keep in touch with Jim at his Substack.