A rocket’s arc, straight up and burned out by 27, emulating our heroes. Fame and fortune and luxurious self-indulgence, because 40 was unimaginable. Yet the fame never came, the fortune either, 40 is gone and now we stare 70 in the mirror and wonder: where did we go wrong?
Robert Carlberg retired as soon as he was able, and now spends his time not doing everything he does not want to do.
A year ago, the last ice shelf cracked away from the Antarctic mainland. Online, they pre-eulogized the tidal rhythms, the season cycles, the ocean ecosystem. They set up a countdown.
This week, the iceberg melted. My daughter cried. Why did we try to douse the fire using only our tears?
Arianna Smith lives in California. Her work has appeared in OFIC Mag.
My date never showed, never texted.
I sat through the entire movie alone.
The boy didn’t get the girl. They went their separate ways.
The end of the movie was the end of the world. The screen faded to black.
There were no credits, no music. The silence felt right.
Bob Thurber is the author of six books. Regarded as a master of Flash and Micro Fiction, his work has appeared in Esquire and other magazines, been anthologized 60 times, received a long list of awards, and been utilized in schools and colleges throughout the world. He resides in Massachusetts. Visit his website at BobThurber.net.
When I was young, my father would call out from the bottom of the stairs.
“Are you up there?”
He always wanted to know we were safe.
He’s gone now.
Sometimes, at night, I look up at the sky and say, “Dad, are you up there?”
I know he is.
Susan Gale Wickes is a writer from Indiana. She enjoys writing short stories, greeting card verses, and the joy of cartoon captioning.
The story of the week for June 24 to 28 is…
Her Solution (a true story) by Trevor
Twenty-four hours from New York, all five in the car plus Sam. A night in Virginia, then “South of the Border” billboards signing us through Spanish moss and fragrant orange groves until, finally, that golden light. Our fishing camp in Florida, now washed away with my childhood pirate birthday parties.
Alison has decades of experience developing compelling marketing content for more than 100 clients in the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East. Now, at age 60, she is applying her skills to a second career in creative writing. Born and raised in New York City, Alison is a voracious reader, enthusiastic hostess, and passionate cook.
She cheated clocks, embezzling endless days from ticking hands. Distilled radiant decades in sky-coloured glass, stored for restorative sipping.
Spent stolen seasons flitting through hospitals, slipping away seconds before unexpected recoveries. Doctors puzzled over all those miraculous revivals, discarded azure bottles – and the timeless sparkle in their onetime patients’ eyes.
Deborah writes at an old desk surrounded by five hundred pet bugs.
Twinkling stars, somersaulting in white pyjamas. Soft grass landings, innocent giggles. Treacherous pirates, circumventing the world. Cardboard ships, constellation navigation. Young hearts ablaze under starlit decrees.
Now we sip red wine in the cool air, two miniature stars dancing in our back garden. Time turns, and the romance begins anew.
Kayla Lang is a small town Malaysian displaced in London.
I am weightless. Untethered. The world and my memory of it fades away, and though time no longer exists, I know that I am waiting for someone.
Fractals of brilliant color burst, and she is there, running towards me.
I bury my face in her fur. Good girl, I whisper.
K. L. Mill is a voice actor, another profession that revolves around words. Most recently her work has been published by Black Hare Press, Hungry Shadow Press, and Atomic Carnival.
It was May and she knew her mother was dying. She’d die in August. She was nineteen and very impressionable. Every summer since then, she’d go storm hunting. She’d find love in the twisted reflections in the rain puddles. She knew that when it was over, she’d be whole again.
Kapka Nilan currently lives in England where she writes, takes pictures of out-of-place things, and looks after an old spirit animal.