KEN GOSSE: Headaches By the Number, Errors by the Score (a circular senryu)

Amusing, Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, ,

When doing the math,
some oddities aren’t even.
Things might not add up
in spite of calculations
on fingers or phones.
When trying over again,
you’ll find differences
multiplying your problems
while seeking quotients
produces new divisions
totaling your sums.
Perhaps you must decide this:
should you do the math?

Ken Gosse prefers writing short, rhyming, humorous poetry. First published in First Literary Review–East in November 2016, he has also been published by Pure Slush, Home Planet News Online, 50Word Stories, and other publications. Raised in the Chicago suburbs, now retired, he and his wife have lived with dogs and cats underfoot in Mesa, AZ, over twenty-five years.

BILL COX: Through the Eye of a Needle

Amusing, Submissions, , , , ,

Teleportation was a technology only the rich could afford. Zapping themselves to Capri for breakfast, Aspen for lunch, Davos for supper, they flaunted their wealth. Until, that is, a hacker reset transmission co-ordinates into the planet’s molten core. Overnight, Earth’s billionaire problem was solved.

A socialist utopia was rapidly established.

Bill is from Aberdeen, Scotland, currently still part of the UK. He shares much in common with Wordsworth, Dickens, and Orwell, in that they also lived in the UK.

CAROL REEVES: Evintide

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

I’d barely put away the Christmas tree lights when the lilacs bloomed.

Before I could smell them, the trees turned gold.

Before I could rake leaves, the pond froze over.

The seasons used to linger, each in its unique glory. Now they fly by as if auditioning one last time.

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. Her stories often reflect the privilege and vicissitudes of aging.

CLAUDIA WEIR: She’s Said Their Names Out Loud

Artistic, Submissions, ,

A woman stands on the sidewalk. She’s thinking about everything that gets snatched from the world every day: dignity, agency, lives.

Injustice festers in her stomach like stagnant air. It rises and reaches her mouth, escaping in a guttural roar.

Her scream dies. The rage—hot and sharp—does not.

Claudia Wair is a Virginia-based writer and editor. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Astrolabe, The Centifictionist, JMWW, Writers Resist, and elsewhere. You can read more at claudiawair.com, or find her on Twitter at @CWTellsTales.

NICK YOUNG: Impermanence

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

From early light, when the sun’s first rays caught the jewelled dew on each gossamer thread, she spun. But come the afternoon, beneath a bank of onrushing thunderheads, a gale blew fierce, destroying her intricate weave. Still, once the storm died away, with neither sorrow nor rancor, she began anew.

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 Garfield Lake Review, Fiction on the Web, Bookends Review, Sandpiper, the San Antonio Review, The Best of CaféLit 11 and Vols. I and II of the Writer Shed Stories anthologies. He lives outside Chicago.

S GOVINDARAJ: Adieu Earth

Amusing, Submissions, , , , ,

AI notification, March 15, 2060:

Interplanetary Council proposes to auction planet Earth, having depleted natural resources, permanent water shortage, irreversibly altered climate. Views invited.

Responses:

Lunar Government – Not interested.

Venusian Government – Won’t bid.

Mars Administration – Just what we need; a place to dump our waste. Will bid throwaway price.

S. Govindaraj wrote this story.

CHRISTOPHER FRUGE: Despite All Efforts

Submissions, Touching, , , ,

“What happened to the seedlings, Daddy?”

“They didn’t work out.” A tear ran down Dan’s face. “Sometimes that happens.”

“Can we try again?”

“Maybe. Let’s see what went wrong.” He dumped the seedling tray into the garbage, covering a deflated pink Mylar balloon. “First, let’s get Mommy from the hospital.”

Christopher “Chris” Fruge is an emerging writer working in computer security by day and writing microfiction and poetry by night. He can be found on Twitter and Instagram.

BRYANT PHILLIPS: Watcher

Amusing, Submissions, , , ,

A look of death. Soulless eyes watching me through my window. Voyeurism? No, just a lawn nazi. What did I do? Everything bad. There is no privacy. Windows are walls made weak, transparencies in my insular foundation. The watcher doesn’t blink. Squirrel knows all that transpires here, chattering, accusing, judging.

Bryant Phillips is the author of Lost At L3 and The Bomb Squad, both sci-fi comedies. If you like his brand of humor, please visit bryantsbullpen.wixsite.com/bryantsbooks!

STEVEN HOLDING: Somnambulist

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

Some BS name. Sleepwalker’s easier. I’d stir. He’d have disappeared, down to the backdoor, eyes closed, trying to get out.

One night, I left it open. Come morning, he’d gone.

I wonder if he woke up, or if he’s still asleep. Still dreaming, looking for that exit.

Just like me.

Steven Holding lives in the United Kingdom. Most recently, his stories have appeared in the collections ANNIHILATION from Black Ink Fiction and DARK MOMENTS YEAR FOUR from Black Hare Press. You can follow his work at www.stevenholding.co.uk.