MATTHEW MOTA: The City as You Run

Adventure, Amusing, Submissions, , , , ,

I climb up the fire escape and chase after the criminal on the rooftops. The gap between us widens.

Other detectives would worry. But after all my years working, this city owes me one.

My adversary trips and falls to the alley below.

I smile, thankful for the city’s appreciation.

Matthew Mota (he/him) is a writer from Chicago, Illinois. He went to the University of Illinois for engineering but found writing as his creative outlet. Creating unique short stories and poetry is his way of navigating the universal hardships of life.

WENDY K MAGES: A Unicorn in Winter

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Ephemeral mists waft against an azure sky. Lying on the grass, you peer into the heavens, watching frothy peaks float by. In an instant, she emerges, a solitary unicorn prancing toward snowy horizons. As billowing winds begin to whisk her away, she takes flight, vanishing into the firmament. Never forgotten.

Wendy K. Mages, a Mercy University Professor, is a Pushcart Prize nominee and an award-winning poet and author. She earned her doctorate in Human Development and Psychology at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and her master’s in Theatre at Northwestern University. As a complement to her research on the effect of the arts on learning and development, she performs at storytelling events and festivals in the US and abroad. To learn more about her and her work, and to find links to her published stories and poetry, please visit https://www.mercy.edu/directory/wendy-mages.

JANELLE SEABOCK: The Kite

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , ,

It was my first day in the juvenile psychiatric ward. The wall inside was painted with a mural – a cheerful daytime scene of a child flying a kite. I could relate. But I wasn’t the child; I was the kite, tethered to the earth by nothing but a single string.

Janelle Seabock is a writer with a love for horror, fantasy, and animals of all kinds. She currently resides in Florida.

MARY HARWELL SAYLER: Left Behind

Amusing, Puns and Wordplay, Submissions, ,

Left-handed people often get left out. Like, when I attended a poetry class at the local university, I saw rows of right-armed desks, but none to accommodate me. Oddly enough, in that particular class, many poets were left-handed, which just goes to show, you can’t be right all the time.

Mary Harwell Sayler wrote this story.

LYNN KOZLOWSKI: Keeping Up Appearances

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , ,

The old man can no longer drive this whole trip himself, starting predawn without stop to make his brother’s place by lunch. His wife leaves late, drives slow, takes breaks. But she gives him the last mile, so he might seem again, on arrival, something of what he was before.

Lynn Kozlowski’s writing has appeared in such places as The Quarterly, The Malahat Review, pif magazine, Poetry Breakfast, and failbetter.com. He has a volume of short pieces, Historical Markers.

ANGELA CARLTON: Christmas in the ER

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

It’s Christmas in the ER. Mother’s got infected wounds.

The hospital has beautiful wreaths, staff members’ wearing reindeer headbands for cheer. Next door, a woman’s crying-laughing. When I exit, I hear, “She’s coming off heroin.”

The woman looks up, sees my blonde hair, and whispers, “Oh, you’re my Christmas Angel.”

Angela Carlton lives outside Atlanta with her husband and two daughters. Her fiction has been published in EWR, Every Day Fiction, Pedestal Magazine, Long Story Short, 6S, High Noon and Friday Flash Fiction among others. Her story “Swallowed,” was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2023.

JOHANNES SPRINGENSEISS: Arrival

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, , , , , ,

TRAIL END!

Unexpected; isn’t the path supposed to go on for another mile? I look at the map, check my compass and turn back.

Soon I come across another sign.

DANGER ZONE: QUICKSAND!

Perplexed; didn’t I just hike up this way?

I sit down on a log.

This is home.

Johannes Springenseiss is a world citizen and a raconteur. He mostly writes speculative fiction and creative essays.

JEFF FRIEDMAN: Another Orpheus

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

“Isn’t this cosy?” I said.

“We’re in a box,” she answered. “I want out.”

The sun shone in the window, and a rainbow fell across her face. Over the years, our house had grown small. I pulled out a match stick and played my tiny violin. Even the dust listened.

Jeff Friedman’s tenth book, Ashes in Paradise, has recently been published by Madhat Press. Friedman’s poems and mini stories have appeared in American Poetry Review, Poetry, Poetry International, New England Review, Flash Fiction Funny, Best Microfiction 2021 and 2022, 2023, and The New Republic. He has received an NEA Literature Translation Fellowship and numerous other awards. Meg Pokrass and Friedman’s co-written collection of microfiction, The House of Grana Padano, was published by Pelekinesis Press in 2022

FC MALBY: She Laughs with the Breeze

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, Touching, , , ,

She laughs with the breeze
as it sweeps through the town,
men — liquor-fueled and free
with their words — lean on the
bar as the music plays, the
streets are alive with the full
moon and the festivities. Trees
outside rattle and shake, the
town thrums and the night is
young.

FC Malby is a contributor to anthologies published by Reflex Press, Unthology, and Litro. Her collection, My Brother was a Kangaroo, includes stories published in various journals worldwide. See more at fcmalby.com