KEN GOSSE: The Caring and the Tearing of the Tats

Poetry, Submissions, , , ,

Already
bearing my
cat’s deep and
deadly tats,
each day I
feed him he
gives me scant
hope. Perhaps
I’ll survive
just as I’ve
knavishly
loved his pats,
making me
neurotic,
overtly
psychotic,
questioning
rhapsodic,
sonorous
tones of his
unearthly
voice. Still, I
wonder why.

Xeroxed scars;
YouTube stars
zigzagging.

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.

ROBERTA SCHINA: It’s Okay, Roberta

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Our plans didn’t work out. “OH NO!”

“Mañana,” they said. But mañana Gloria got sick and so did I. Then we got better, but Rosa may have to work.

“OH NO!”

“Esta bien, Roberta.” It’s okay.

That’s what I come to Mexico to learn. To learn that “esta bien, Roberta.”

Roberta Schine is a yoga instructor, former karate instructor, immigration activist, and writer living in New York City. She teaches yoga classes for people with Parkinson’s at Mount Sinai Hospital and is a regular presenter at the National Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery in Mexico City. Her writing has appeared in Portside.org, Rattapallax, Passager, Penmen Review, Unfortunately (winner, Halloween Micro Contest), Hawansuyo.com (in Spanish), Perigrinosysuslettras (in Spanish) and other literary publications.

EMMA THOMAS: Pulmonary Hypertension

Amusing, Submissions, , , , ,

Sirens bounce down dirt roads. Branches snap. EMTs clench teeth. She’s already outside. Vitals checked; questions asked.

“Fix me,” she says. “I’m dying.”

“Could be years,” they say. “That’s no emergency.” The vehicle clunks away, the frightening roads now disconcerting, banal.

How dare they? she thinks. How is it not?

Emma Thomas is a math teacher in southern California with a background in physics, ocean science, and creative writing.

YEJUN CHUN: A Moment

Submissions, Touching, , ,

“There is a moment when you realize how much you can care for someone else, when all the ancient love poems studied in school suddenly make sense, when you can finally see your vulnerability as your truth.”

I wanted to tell her this. I still believe that was my moment.

Yejun Chun is a student studying in Seoul, South Korea. His works have been published in hobart pulp, *82 Review, and the drabble among other places. He is working on his debut novel.

CAROLINE ASHLEY: Your Umbrella

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , , , ,

On winter walks, your umbrella danced a samba through the trees. Its red fabric spun like a Catherine wheel on your wrist, until rainfall caused an explosion of crimson and your feet would twirl instead.

Laid to rest at the door, unused, it laments that I cannot dance like you.

Caroline Ashley is a clinical psychologist who lives in Scotland with her family and two Siamese cats. Writing fiction has always been a passion of hers but she has only recently started publishing her work. You can find her online at www.carolineashleystudio.wordpress.com.

DANIEL P DOUGLAS: Not Alone

Adventure, Submissions, , ,

I knew what I had seen, so I called it in. “I’d like to report a UFO, a glowing disk. Big as a bus.” No, I do not have a life-threatening emergency. You got other calls? Good to hear. So relieved. I’m not crazy. I’m not alone. We’re not alone.

Daniel P. Douglas is the pen name for identical twins Phillip and Paul Garver. They write sci-fi thrillers and, as residents of New Mexico, are quite familiar with the subject of flying saucers.

KATHRYN SILVER-HAJO: As In Life

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, , ,

My mother thrived on attention, itched for drama. She left my quiet, reclusive father because of it. On Friday she died. Sunday, epic rain flooded the parkway by the river in our town and people rowed in little boats to higher ground. Even in death, she was impossible to ignore.

Kathryn Silver-Hajo is a 2023 Pushcart Prize nominee whose work appears or is forthcoming in Atticus Review, Craft Literary, Pithead Chapel, Ruby Literary and others. Her flash collection Wolfsong and novel Roots of The Banyan Tree are both forthcoming in 2023. Kathryn reads for Fractured Lit. More at: kathrynsilverhajo.com twitter.com/KSilverHajo and instagram.com/kathrynsilverhajo.

CHIDI YOUNG: Smell of Freedom

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Conscience called. I listened. Sun up, my captive was released back into the wild. Few leaps away from the cage, he paused, filling up his lungs with a whiff of the sweet smell of freedom. One leap forward, and the squirrel was airborne, caged between the talons of a hawk.

Chidi Young lives in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria.

DOUG JACQUIER: Out Here

Adventure, Submissions, , ,

Harry was fixing a snapped axle on a mail truck in a dry creek bed. Thought he heard an oncoming train.

Out here? Nah, you’d have to be a mental case. Just hearing things.

He was still thinking that when the flash flood carried him and the mail miles downstream.

Doug Jacquier’s poems and stories have been published in Australia, the US, the UK, Canada, New Zealand and India. He blogs at Six Crooked Highways.