KEITH HOOD: Another Sunrise

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, ,

Gunfire rang out. Cedric swore he could hear the scream of the butterflies. A fellow soldier took a bullet in the thigh. Coins tinkled from his pocket. They took cover, fighting off the attack and spending the night in the bush. The sun shone through thick haze the next morning.

Keith Hood is a former janitor and window cleaner. He retired from a job as a field technician for a Michigan electric utility after 32 years avoiding electrocution. Keith Hood’s writing has appeared in Blue Mesa Review, Your Impossible Voice, one sentence poems, Five Minutes One Hundred Words, and The Forge Literary Magazine.

DAVID DEZELL TURNER: Time, Warped

Submissions, Touching, , , ,

I buried myself in my Flash comic, pretending to be unaffected by Grandpa’s inability to remember me.

Pointing to the cover, Dad whispered, “Remember when your hero got trapped in the Speed Force, and he started experiencing time out of order?”

I nodded.

“My hero’s going through the same thing.”

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.

JOAN LEOTTA: Moon Teaches Resistance

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , , ,

Sun, daily, banishes darkness completely. Moon, with reflected force, dispels the worst of night’s grief as best she can, though imperfectly. Resolutely, nightly, she lays down a bit of silver path, slim as crescent, wider with full face so we too learn to resist darkness with whatever force we muster.

Joan Leotta plays with words on page and stage. Her writing has been published widely in the English-speaking world. Her writing and onstage performances often focus on food, family, strong women–and of course, the moon.

CAROL REEVES: Windows of Time

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

My window is my ticket to today. I see squirrels chase, lovers stroll—hear rain fall and friends laugh. I smell wet pavement. Memories stir. They are carefully stored in the index boxes of my soul, there for the borrowing, like a giant library. Treasures to be read and reread.

A prolific writer, Carol Reeves is loving the freedom and challenges of 50 word stories. Her memoir, “All the Little Miracles,” was published last year. She often writes of the privilege and vicissitudes of aging.

ALEX STOLIS: Funeral for a friend/love lies bleeding

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

If you’ve seen death then you know it’s not ever what you expect.
It comes in many colors: gunmetal grey, Easter egg blue, morning yellow.

There’s music: one time it’s Billie Holiday, another it’s Black Francis,
sometimes it’s a soft voice saying I love you, have a good life;
good-bye.

Alex lives in Minneapolis. See more at alexstolis.myportfolio.com.

KG SONG: Promises

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Joseph finishes reading War and Peace, all of its 587,286 words, and places the book on an empty bed.

A thick silence fills his small room.

He has kept his promise to read every word of the book to his wife. She, however, could not keep her promise to listen.

K.G. Song discovered the joy of creative writing, especially crafting flash fiction, during the pandemic lock down and that became his favorite hobby. He resides in California with his wife and a parrot. They do their best to keep K.G. out of trouble, not always successfully.

JOHN SZAMOSI: After the End

Amusing, Submissions, , ,

When an epidemic or a war or a climate catastrophe or a large enough meteorite dispatches all of us, we’ll eventually be washed into the oceans. Dolphins and whales will gather to examine.

Highly intelligent animals, they will quickly conclude: Debris from dry land. Better steer clear. Could be toxic.

John Szamosi lives in the Pocono Mountains. He has published several short stories, essays and poems in print and online magazines.

BOB THURBER: Once In A Blue Moon Among The Ruins

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, , ,

Minutes after the super blue moon rises above the temple of Poseidon, an aircraft passes across our view. The private jetliner is too far away to hear and looks like a night bird gliding beneath a floodlight. I’m jealous of the people onboard, those lucky fearless fools deliberately tempting fate.

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.

EMMA PENG: When the earth stops moving

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Perhaps the flowers wither and the stars fall, and tides rise as fauna die. But no longer will we feel the clashing whims of our hearts, the timeless troubles thundering our souls.

Perhaps when we reach the heavens, half burnt, flames dancing across the sky, our worlds will lie still.

Emma Peng is a recent high school graduate who enjoys exploring new worlds through writing fantastical stories and her wildlife blog.