I enjoyed a particularly great conversation with my mom yesterday. She popped by unexpectedly, offering lavish praise for my latest songwriting endeavor, her smile crinkly bright. She’s usually warm, but this time she was enthusiastically effusive. I flushed with joy. Best conversation since her death 9 years ago.
Jannie Dziadzio is gratefully devoting her sixth decade of life to deep connection, beauty, creative spark and harmony in a myriad of forms.
You’ve been gone so long.
And now you’re back!
I missed you!
But you smell different,
And you look happy
Where did you go without me?
What is this?
I can’t believe you ran your hands through someone else’s fur.
My heart is broken.
You smell of next door’s cat!
Francesca Morrison is a born and bred Londoner now living in Vancouver. She recently came runner up in a Flash Fiction contest and was longlisted for the CANSCAIP 2022 Writing for Children Competition.
Indiscriminately, Death danced with man.
He threw his hands skyward, skeletal yet undefined, and began to move irregularly; jarringly. Each mortal decayed – rotting as they moved, ashened and broken – reluctantly reformed and reborn to continue their maniacally frantic fire-pit choreography. Vivid. Brazen. Bare-boned. A final, unending, desperate act of life.
Kristian Hale is a writer based in Manchester, UK. His short story compilation, ‘A Taste of Chaos’ is currently available in Paperback on Amazon, with the upcoming debut novel ‘The Forest and His Lover’ set to be released in early 2025. You can learn more about current and upcoming work at kristianhale.wordpress.com.
the quay is empty now,
the stage where you stood in the light around you
while waving with many gulls.
water, wind, waves, all weave
the same words, over and over
fading slowly into the distance.
how long will they last, these words,
before they turn into
shrieks of seabirds.
KHOP Möricke is just living along in the Netherlands. In 2012, KHOP published a book titled 50 easy pieces.
Brushing my teeth, I see two red eyes in the black window.
They are the rear reflectors of mine and Anki’s bikes, catching the bathroom light. I chuckle thinking about my nervous boyhood self seeing them.
When I straighten up, I remember that Anki’s bike is at the repair shop.
Christina Nordlander lives near Manchester, the UK, with her husband. She has published approximately 25 short stories, almost all of them horror in some way.
The orbiter streaked the pastel skies of Alpha Centauri. Two humans stepped out to view their conquest, carrying with them a flag. But another flag was already there. A tyrannosaurus rex appeared emblazoned on it in red. The humans despaired.
“How’d they plant it with such short arms?” she fumed.
Matt Strutz (He/him/his) is a fiction author living in Norristown, Pennsylvania. Born in Downers Grove, Illinois, he moved out East to live with his life partner. They met online through a shared love of writing and live together with their three cats. Matt is interested in exploring the wide range of human emotion and experience through storytelling. When he’s not writing he can be found running, climbing, woodworking, painting, or hiking.
A glistening perspiration drop sparkled in the sunshine next to her left eyebrow. Work friends, we jogged together once a week. Sitting on a bench after a long run, she spoke passionately about something.
“Are you listening to me? What are you doing?”
“Falling in love with you.”
“About time!”
Dart Humeston is a Floridian who dodged hurricanes and alligators while working as a university administrator and faculty. He writes short stories and novels.
July meant camping in Susan’s backyard and, one Friday, she brought out a needle and pen. Like always, Helen went first. Held Carly’s hand against the pinch. Matching hearts. Later, when she was alone, she touched the smudged ink. Felt Carly’s grip, Susan’s laugh, summer: bottled and rolled under skin.
Salena Casha’s work has appeared in over 100 publications in the last decade. Her most recent work can be found on HAD, Ghost Parachute, and Wrong Turn Lit. She survives New England winters on good beer and black coffee. Subscribe to her substack at salenacasha.substack.com.
Rusty green 1978 Dodge rumbling down Bennett.
Sneakers slapping concourse concrete.
Up, and up, and up.
Peeking through rapidly passing entry ways.
Bases loaded.
We sit.
Ellis Burks drives an inside fastball clear out of McCoy.
Stand up.
“Never show up an inning too late,” Pop says, chuckling and cheering.
Matty Joe Afonso has been passionate about writing since Mrs. Chisholm’s second grade class and her weekly short story challenges. In college, he studied writing under published poet Randy Blasing. His greatest inspiration came later in life from a familiar source: award-winning flash-fiction author Bob Thurber, Matty Joe’s childhood neighbor and father of his best friend, Sarah Kate. After reading Thurber’s Paperboy, Matty Joe was inspired to one day publish his own work. Matty Joe was raised and lives to this day in North Attleboro, Massachusetts with his girlfriend Corey and their combined six children, two dogs, and one fat cat.
Flour spilled in the kitchen
is swept outside to merge
with a tossed crust of bread
borne by two rows of ants
going down the hill toward
the underground grotto
where a rabbit holds
a perfect English muffin
between her paws─
her aspirational muffin.
She’d rather starve than eat it.
Cheryl Snell writes poetry and fiction.