KAREN WALKER: Old Percy Street Made the Man

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

The bow tie is new. Straw hat, too.

His face: not new. The shop where he bought it is gone, a swanky bistro there now.

He orders a salad.

Dentures bite, grind, clack; it’s not worth $24.

Eyes—original to the face—mist.

He apologizes and tips the server well.

Karen writes short in a low Canadian basement. Her work is in or forthcoming in FlashBack Fiction, Emerge Literary Journal, Reflex Fiction, Bullshit Lit, Blank Spaces, Ghost City Press, Alien Buddha Press, and others. She/her. Follow her at @MeKawalker883

JOSEPHINE RUDOLF: Limits

Artistic, Submissions, ,

The angel tells me how proud he is while the devil urges me to be selfish for once.

The angel pushes me further, yet it’s the devil who mourns as I break.

I thought I listened to the right one, but looking at my deteriorating body, I’m not sure anymore.

Josephine Rudolf is a writer from Berlin, Germany. She loves writing Micros and Flash fiction because in those every word counts.

KEN GOSSE: The Forget-Me-Not Pot Plot

Poetry, Submissions, Touching, , , , ,

I planted a Forget-Me-Not
in a very lovely spot
to give my love on its first bloom
and waft its scent throughout our room.

I looked again—it isn’t there.
I’m certain that she doesn’t care.
I don’t know now where it may be,
but I know she’s forgotten me.

Ken Gosse wrote this poem.

HILLARY LYON: Finders, Keepers

Adventure, Odd, Submissions, , ,

We found the silver jumpsuit piled beneath the old oak tree. Stuffed it with hay to use as a scarecrow in the cornfield. Really frightens the birds!

Later, we found the matching helmet in the creek bed, with the oblong skull still inside. Pa uses it for a Halloween decoration.

Hillary founded and for 20 years acted as senior editor for the independent poetry publisher, Subsynchronous Press. Her short stories, drabbles, and poems have appeared in numerous print and online publications. Hillary also creates illustrations for horror/sci-fi, and pulp fiction sites. See more at hillarylyon.wordpress.com.

GENE NEWMAN: Uplifting Purchase

Amusing, Submissions, Touching, , , ,

Dollar Store checkout customers waited impatiently
behind someone who’d ordered 48 birthday balloons
to be selected and inflated one at a time.
Then they watched the little mother leave,
struggling mightily with the four dozen helium bubbles in the wind.
She was later spotted drifting eastward 500 feet over Morristown.

Gene Newman wrote this story.

SHOSHAUNA SHY: 3 AM Email

Submissions, Touching, , , ,

This was it. This answered everything. She was quenched upon reading that first two-letter word, expansive as a verandah on a summer afternoon. Only one consonant, one vowel but since their argument and the weeks of silence, the barren Sundays, the no-text midnights, here it arrived at last: “My Amelia…”

Shoshauna enjoys being with trees, books, cats, chocolate and her husband, preferably all at the same time.

NELLY SHULMAN: The Hourglass

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

The hourglass, made from the remains of a medieval ship raised from the bottom of the sea, rustles with tiny particles of time behind the rough greenish glass.

The thought gathers the letters into words, and the hand writes them down on paper, stopping time for a single precious moment.

Nelly Shulman lives and writes in Berlin. See more at nellyshulman.blog.

SARAH GRACE TUTTLE: What Dew Felt Like

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , ,

When the cactus bloomed, people told her the flower wouldn’t last the night. So, she whispered to it. She made the flower yearn to know what dew felt like. The flower told neighboring buds, and word spread. Soon, more cacti had flowers. At dawn, the desert was covered in them.

Sarah Grace Tuttle is an author and poet living in Massachusetts with their partner and many plants. You can visit them online at www.sarahgracetuttle.com.

RAN WALKER: Men in Mourning

Submissions, Touching, , ,

Terrell didn’t bother changing out of his work shirt. Sitting down, he placed the Budweiser six-pack on the table between Grandpa and himself. Grandma had been gone a year. The beer and conversation was a poor substitute for hugs and peach cobbler, but the men did the best they could.

Ran Walker is the author of 26 books, including The Library of Afro Curiosities: 100-Word Stories. He teaches at Hampton University and lives in Virginia with his wife and daughter.