The story of the week for September 4 to 8 is…
Moon Teaches Resistance by Joan Leotta
KYLIE SMOLKO: A Morsel of Ash
She was, simply, a comet. Beautiful and bright but burning and crumbling up close. She’d scorch those who dared to come near and offer them more of herself, little pieces dropping like breadcrumbs through the forest to lead your way. But those burned in the pit of my stomach, too.
Kylie Smolko is a published ghostwriter and freelance editor. She loves all things horror and romance and loves her cat an unhealthy amount. She lives in the United Kingdom because she decided that Florida was too darn hot.
NELLY SHULMAN: Excuse Me
George raised his head, trying to discern in the purple sky the elusive star of the seas.
“Excuse me,” the girl said.
A ribbon held a stream of her blond hair. She disappeared into the motley crowd of visitors, and George dragged himself to the bus stop, plastered with advertisements.
Nelly Shulman is a writer based in Jerusalem.
BILL COX: Divine Justice
Jason turns and runs backwards.
“Come on, Peter! Even running backwards I’m still faster than you!”
For years, I’ve had to endure his condescension. Jason’s better than me at everything and not shy about letting me know.
He can’t see the lamppost coming, though.
Perhaps there’s a God, after all.
Bill lives in Aberdeen, Scotland. His writing regularly amazes and astonishes readers, but usually for the wrong reasons.
KEITH HOOD: Another Sunrise
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
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
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
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
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
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.