NICK YOUNG: Zen

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

As they walked, Master Cho and his disciple came upon a purple crocus, coaxed forth by April’s showers. The acolyte bent low and plucked a weed away from the dazzling bloom. “You acted without awareness,” scolded the sensei. “Did you not see the exquisite beauty in what you have destroyed?”

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 Best of CaféLit 11 and Vols. I and II of the Writer Shed Stories anthologies. He lives outside Chicago.

JIMOH ADEIZA ABDULRAHAMAN: Iqbar

Submissions, Touching, , , ,

During Taraweeh, Iqbar grinned at me, revealing two minute incisors.

Keenly, he watched my folded arms, bowings, kowtowings, and muttering of Amins, Allahuakbars.

Iqbar also kowtowed, laughed and clapped, his puerile voice imitating mine: “A-m-i-n, A-ll-ah-u-ak-bar!”

Distracted and smiling, I beseech Allah for forgiveness, and another happy baby, like Iqbar.

Jimoh Adeiza Abdulrahaman writes from Nigeria. He’s a fiction writer who’s passionate about humanity. His works have appeared or forthcoming in 50-Word Stories and SprinNG.

TIM BOITEAU: Widowmaker

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , ,
Widowmaker noun
(‘wi-dō-mā-kər)
that rotten limb hanging off the lofty, half-dead white oak in your backyard, creaking in the wind, detaching fiber by groaning fiber, perched directly above your mindless husband as he chuckles along to his favorite comedy podcast, toiling away in the wormy and fragrant sod, planting forget-me-nots.

Tim Boiteau is a Writers of the Future winner and lives in Michigan.

ANTHEA JONES: It’s getting hot in here

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, , , , ,

Sparks fly and I am born.
Worship me, love me, share me.
Build me up and I’ll warm you right through.
Searing. Sizzling. Spitting.
Can you take the heat?
I’m smokin’ red and volatile.
Scared?
Gonna smother me?
Extinguish me?
Ban me?
Good luck.
I am story and I burn.

Anthea lives in sunny Queensland, Australia. She writes all kinds of things and nothing will ever put out her writing fire. Follow her at @WriterAnthea.

DEBORAH TROWBRIDGE: Bees

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , , ,

Salvation for the bee: early pastel crocus, fringed yellow aconite, sweet drooping snowdrops. Word will out in late winter weather. Parched and hungry bees emerge from months of chilly sleep and embrace the blooms. Nourished, hydrated, they dance their way day to day to the fine quickening greenery of spring.

Deborah writes fiction, flash, and creative non-fiction in northwestern Montana. Her work has been published in Thin Air Magazine, Ekphrastic Review and Common Ground among others. Her story, “Hardened Road,” was long listed in CRAFT’s 2019 Short Fiction Contest. Her flash, “Family Legend,” was anthologized in Ekphrastic Review’s Lucky Seven Writing Marathon, 2022, judged by Meg Pokrass.

CAROL TYMANN: A Church Basement Circa 1960

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

See lunchtime starting
See students sprinting for seats
See 300 children screeching
See three Sisters shrieking. “Silence! Say Grace.”
See Susan swapping salami for Sally’s Snoballs
See Vinnie vomiting volumes of veggie soup
See Sister Sebastian sliding through slimy soup
See lunchtime ending
See students silently slumping back to school

Carol Tymann attended and taught in parochial schools in Albany, New York. She keeps busy reading, writing, working out, and cooking.

LIAM LLOYD-HUGHES: Sirens of the Wood

Amusing, Submissions, , , , ,

When I was little, my grandmother would tell me stories of beautiful witches luring young boys who strayed too far into the forest. “Sirens of the wood,” she’d say to me. “They want to eat you for supper and swallow your innocence!”

Naturally, I prayed that I’d run into one.

Liam Lloyd-Hughes is Welsh and a ninteen-year-old English Language & Creative Writing student at the University of Chester. He doesn’t have a website, so he instead recommends supporting each other.

MICHAEL THEROUX: It’s Organic

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

Quiet hum over sandwiches, jazz. Click of heavy plates and pots; register rings: cashew chicken, wild rice, coarse bread.

Downtown backstreet deli, mid-day mellow. Fine hide-out: out of the way, just enough. Locals all know: everyone is Home here.

Have a seat, smile, slow down. Breathe a while. It’s organic…

Michael Theroux writes from his cubby-hole home office in Northern California. He is presently shifting from decades of developing and publishing science-based socio-political works toward publication of poetry and fiction. Much more satisfying…

MATT WARNOCK: Contact

Adventure, Submissions, , , ,

We looked up, goggle-eyed, as the sky darkened. The saucer blocked out the sun, its lights a tiny galaxy of artificial stars. A white light, weightlessness, and first contact was made.

Jimmy went for his slingshot. I pulled a pack of gum.

A sea of large black eyes stared back.

Matt Warnock is always thinking about stories, what-ifs, and mushroom hunting.