After the funeral, as I’m tidying your shed, I find a wooden box tucked away on a high shelf behind an entanglement of brooms, rakes and garden tools. Inside, you’ve nestled a glass jar of seeds in crumpled newspaper. What were you saving, Dad? Shall I plant them, and see?
Fiona H Evans eats alphabet soup and arranges words into stories. She lives on Noongar Boodja in Western Australia, in a cottage near a river where black swans swim.
Sunrise blinds your tired eyes, you do your nine-to-five, but home time feels different. You overcomplicate your thoughts, hobbies don’t bring joy anymore; you drink until you think you’ll drown, to beat the thief of sleep. There’s no more home to go to when you know there’s no one there.
Billie-Leigh Burns is a writer from Liverpool. Her work has been featured by 50 Word Stories, 101 Words, Funny Pearls and The Mersey Review. She is also a bookkeeper, making her the only writer she knows who owns an ‘I Heart Spreadsheets’ mug.
Found Mr Daffodil in the bed after his shower, all fresh-skinned and dewy. Hard to ignore. But he doesn’t fool me. I know he won’t hang around— he’ll be gone before summer. So, I’m keeping my eye out for Mr Zinnia. Sturdy. Reliable. He’ll keep his colour well into fall.
Louella Lester is a writer/photographer in Winnipeg, Canada, author of Glass Bricks, contributing editor at NFFR, and is included in Best Microfiction 2024. See more at louellalesterblog.wordpress.com.
You have been told since you were children that these waters carry riches. For your people, these riches are fish. You’re fishermen.
Suddenly, you’re not. You’re retired without your consent. The riches are no longer in fishes, but in oil.
The land is yours, but now, the money is not.
Adebisi Amori is a creative writer from Ibadan, Nigeria. Read more of her works at https://medium.com/@adebisiamori
His unruly mop of dark sunshine rests gently against my shoulder. My hand trembles a little in his soft squeeze. The fearful words crowd my tongue. He doesn’t know yet. He still doesn’t know. The words push for release. Please. Just one more moment. If only love could stop time.
Charly Chow (she/her) is a London-based poet and storyteller. Dyspraxia and ADHD are part of Charly’s neural make-up, but they don’t define her. Her work appears in Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Curio Cabinet Magazine and Duck Duck Mongoose Magazine among others. You can find her on Twitter at @whatcharlywrote.
From: Dean Plasmafist
To: Hindsight Girl
We regret to inform you that you were not selected for Enforcer Academy. Your ability to make people reconsider decisions, while amusing, is too mundane a superpower for our prestigious training program.
On second thought, perhaps we were too hasty. Welcome to the Academy!
David Dezell Turner is an astrodynamics PhD student at the University of Colorado Boulder. When he isn’t giving directions to real spaceships, he’s writing about fictional ones. Check out more of his work at daviddezellturner.com.
I was standing by his corpse. Sure it was Harry. Although the face was disfigured, I could feel the cinnamon in my nostrils. Only he smelled that way. I couldn’t contain my sorrow and began to bark.
“What are you barking at, Duffy?” Harry said, his shadow approaching me.
Tanay is a freelancer and a business owner from India. He loves to write whenever he finds the time. His latest poetry collection ‘sparrow on the bark’ is out on Amazon, in paperback and on kindle.
Someone’s ‘many greats’ grandmother held the checkout line hostage with a return, a coupon and her checkbook. After a thorough search in her purse of a thousand zippers, she asked for a pen. Dangling her purchase from her walker, she rattled her way out smiling. Yes, it was me. Sorry.
Nicki Nance wrote this story.
I need to know many things. I peer through layers of smoke roiling beneath the glass. I can see forever, but not the end.
As the haze clears, I see myself as I am seen. Reflected in the depths, not my face, but another’s—the one I killed to become.
Jamison Brown has had a rewarding career in technology, a journey that has allowed him to travel extensively. Jamison now takes pleasure in the simple joys of being a homebody. An avid lover of writing and music, Jamison maintains a passionate connection to his tech roots, ensuring that the digital realm continues to hold a special place on his priority list. View more of Jamison’s work at https://jgbrown.me.
Our handbaskets bump in the checkout line. We smile, shift arms right and left to protect our goods. In your nest: caramel puff corn, chocolate lava cakes, gallon of milk. In mine: a party barrel of German pretzels, key lime pie, and chardonnay. Plus and minus, we celebrate both signs.
Maureen Kingston’s poems and prose have appeared or are forthcoming in Blithe Spirit, Frogpond, Friday Flash Fiction, Gyroscope Review, MacQueen’s Quinterly, and Unbroken Journal.