BOB THURBER: Shadow Dreams (Another Misadventure of the Broken Boys)

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , , , , ,

On moonless nights, when darkness unfolds, becoming every shadow’s blanket, the boys dream of shadows sleeping serenely, cuddled in night’s softness. Whenever a shadow snarls or snores, the night muffles the sound into something less disturbing. While the boys dream of shadows, the shadows dream of dancing beneath crisscrossing spotlights.

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.

EILEEN MARDRES: The Girl with the Purple Hair

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

First you see the cap of bright purple hair, then dark supporting tresses. Together they frame a beatific smile and lowered eyes. The very image of serenity and beauty, masking the horrendous, courageous journey through abuse and fear that birthed this strong young woman, this girl with the purple hair.

Eileen is writing her way through retirement and grandparenthood.

DAVID SILVER: Beastly for Grandpa

Amusing, Puns and Wordplay, Submissions, ,

Grandpa was fit but he was convinced he was a wildebeest. Every day he galloped through the cobbled streets, imagining he was making his annual migration through East Africa. Today, Grandpa would have been diagnosed as zoanthropic and would receive psychiatric help. But back in the old days, who gnu?

David Silver was a reporter, sub-editor, and humour columnist on various newspapers in Greater Manchester, England. He retired in 2002 and from 2011-2016 wrote a light-hearted column for The Courier, a weekly newspaper for UK expatriates in Spain.

NICK YOUNG: Ostinato

Submissions, Touching, , , , ,

He adored “Peace Piece.” Each time he would coax me to take the left hand while he played the right. We were joined at the heart and in the beauty of the gentle melody. Now he’s gone, and I sit at the piano alone, one hand lost without the other.

Nick Young is a retired award-winning CBS News Correspondent. In addition to 50-Word Stories, his writing has appeared in more than two dozen publications including the Pennsylvania Literary Journal, The Garland Lake Review, Potato Soup Journal, The San Antonio Review, The Best of CaféLit 11 and Vols. I and II of the Writer Shed Stories anthologies. He lives outside Chicago.

CHERYL SNELL: Morning Run

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, ,

veiled dawn
rose and gold
heel heel toe toe
rising wet steam
whiff of coffee
breakfast eats
the hour before
you take off
ready to exist and
feeling the sun’s rays
playing lightly
through time
its complicated systems
the driving beat inside
your own heart pleading
don’t stop keep going.

Cheryl Snell writes poetry and fiction of all sizes. She has recent work in Gone Lawn, Impspired, Pure Slush and elsewhere.

CHANDRA SUNDEEP: The Pattern

Artistic, Submissions, Touching, , , ,

We’ve got a pattern.
You break. I fix.
You plead innocence. I forgive.
But this time, you’ve crossed all limits. You broke your promise and my heart. Tell me how to fix them. I’m struggling.
Can’t you plead for your innocence from the other side?
I want to forgive you.

Chandra Sundeep is a BIPOC writer living in Kuwait. She is an avid reader and loves reviewing books. Follow her at @wordsopedia.

GENE NEWMAN: Discombobulated

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

I am usually intimidated by fussy institutions.

City halls, motor vehicle departments, IRS offices, banks, and libraries
always turn me off, often turn me down and sometimes actually turn me out.

They make me feel like an amateur kazoo player who is trying to audition
for the New York Philharmonic.

Gene Newman was a USAF cryptologist during the Korean War and is a retired engineer and journalist, including stringing for the N.Y. Times, being a crossword puzzle creator for the New York Times and USA Today. That’s it for now unless he gets better on the kazoo.

MIRANDA KESKES: The Buddy Bench

Submissions, Top Stories, Touching, , , ,

Miss Addie said if I sat there, a friend would come.

Sally came and pulled my braids. Leah stuck out her tongue. Bobby kicked my shoe. Danny called me ugly.

When recess ended, Miss Addie sat beside me and placed her hand over mine.

Miss Addie always tells the truth.

Miranda Keskes is a writer and educator whose fiction has appeared in Pigeon Review, EveryDay Fiction, Bright Flash Literary Review, The Drabble, and the anthologies, Heart/h, Hysteria, and 100 Ways to Die. She lives in Michigan with her husband and their two rambunctious boys. Learn more at KeskesInk.com. Follow her on Instagram at miranda_keskes_writer.

LINDA BRISKIN: Word Envy

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

She envies the poets. The cadence and repetition, the rhythms, the tapestry of tangled words—unexpected and sometimes incomprehensible. They send her mind wandering and wondering. Word play to slow her mind’s chatter: palindromes and alliterations, onomatopoeia and allegory, allusion and bricolage, paradox and parody. Desire blooms in her heart.

Linda Briskin is a writer and fine art photographer. She is drawn to writing about whimsy, fleeting moments, and the small secrets of interior lives. Her writing has appeared in numerous literary journals. As a photographer, she is intrigued by the permeability between the remembered and the imagined, and the ambiguities in what we choose to see. See more at lindabriskinphotography.com.