HANNAH SMART: Parallel Paths

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

We were born 35 years and 500 miles apart, though that distance feels shorter somehow. Your path was cemented and dried before mine was even conceived of. I like to think that in a parallel universe, where fate is not so exacting, where time heals instead of corroding, they intersected.

Hannah Smart is a fiction writer and literary/pop culture critic. Her work has been published in or is forthcoming in The Harvard Advocate, The Boston Globe, Puerto del Sol, The Rupture, SmokeLong Quarterly, and The Sunlight Press, among others. She is the founder and editor in chief of experimental magazine The Militant Grammarian, holds an MFA from Emerson College, and is a Ph.D. candidate and writing professor at the University of Southern Mississippi.

DEBORAH TAPPER: Sea Born

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

He’s always busy with something, never cares where she’s been or who she’s seen. Ignores how she’s spending every spare second with old swim friends; doesn’t even notice when shimmering scales start to reappear.

Now she’s gone. And all he finds are her discarded shoes, drifting unneeded on the tide.

Deborah writers at an old desk surrounded by five hundred pet bugs.

JAMES WHITMAN: Pancakes

Artistic, Submissions, Touching, , ,

She woke to the aroma of pancakes.

Jack made pancakes every Sunday. His with blueberries and Greek yogurt; hers with bacon and maple syrup. She smiled.

When the bedroom door creaked open, it wasn’t him. It was their son, Daniel.

But while they chewed their pancakes, Jack was with them.

James Whitman is a writer, podcaster, and nerdy dad. He makes excellent pancakes.

IYONMANA ADESUWA: Lost Whispers

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

In the quiet corner of her room, she sifted through old photographs, tracing the lines of forgotten smiles. Her fingers danced over sepia memories, each frame a vessel of laughter and shared secrets. The room whispered of days gone by, where two sisters once painted the world with their dreams.

Iyonmana Adesuwa is a registered nurse who loves to write.

EO HARGREAVES: The One With My Name On It

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Heard the round chamber behind me; knew it was coming long before that.

Thought I’d see my life flash like a grainy home movie, chronicling mistakes I’d made, with a few yellow-tinged birthdays for good measure.

But wouldn’t you know? Only thing that ever came to mind was her face.

E.O. plans to avoid a career in organized crime, but admits that mafioso make pretty decent bad guys in movies.

CONNIE TAYLOR: Ruins

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Visitors examined the crumbling stadium, considering the destroyed rows of seating. So many! They wondered… Had there once been enough Earthlings to fill them?

No, they determined. It had been built to deceive, to convince visitors Earth was dangerous.

Earth had been left alone as long as the stadium stood.

Connie Taylor left California to become a commercial fisherman in Alaska. She fished salmon, crab and shrimp for twenty years before settling in Cordova to become a printer and art gallery owner. Now she’s a publisher, photographer, and author. See more at fathompublishing.com.

POLLY FOSTER: The smallest things

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

I wash my hands outside the neonatal intensive care unit. The soap kills ninety nine point nine percent of bacteria, but what about the rest?

On the third wash my engagement ring clatters on the stainless steel. I watch it spiral down the drain, too exhausted to lunge for it.

Polly is a Content Strategist living in London with her partner and baby.

CHRISTA PLANKO: Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

She studies her reflection like words on a page. Facial contours are bones structuring her story. Cosmetic tricks are literary devices that detract from flaws.

Realizing she is the creation, not the artist, she removes the embellishments. Her truth laid bare—every line, scar, and tear—she stands more beautiful.

Christa Planko, MA, is a professional writer with a passion for creative expression. She has had her poetry and short stories featured in several publications, including River Poets Journal, Tanka and Haiku Journal, Poetry Quarterly, and Every Day Fiction. Her story, “The Olde-Tyme Village,” won the 2021 WordCrafter Short Fiction Contest. Christa resides in South Jersey with her feline muses.

ROBERTA BEACH JACOBSON: Security Net

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

We, the poets, musicians, and painters, are facing our 60th birthdays. Uh oh. We’ve enjoyed creative lives chasing our dreams. We didn’t desire the security of those friends with steady jobs. As we inch toward our quirky retirement years, immeasurable joy is found by continuing to write, sing, and sketch.

Roberta Beach Jacobson is the Fleakeeper at Five Fleas Itchy Poetry.