“You think it’s safe now?” he whispered.
I nodded.
“I’ll take a look.”
He unlocked the storm-cellar door, climbed up to the yard.
Cold, dark summer skies.
As soon as I saw his back stiffen, I slammed the door shut. Locked it.
The snarls of something gigantic silenced his banging.
Tim Boiteau lives in Michigan, is the author of the dark fantasy novel The Drummer Girl and a Writers of the Future winner.
Widowed three times in ten years,
her insurance provider had fears
that she’d be a claimant
for yet one more payment
and meanwhile, though still shedding tears,
she married again
(how many more men?)
yet what she didn’t know
was that her latest beau
had lost his first five financiers.
Ken Gosse prefers writing short, rhyming, humorous poetry. First published in First Literary Review–East in November 2016, he is also in The Offbeat, Pure Slush, Parody, Home Planet News Online, and other publications. Raised in the Chicago suburbs, now retired, he and his wife have lived with their dogs and cats in Mesa, AZ, over twenty years.
The boy pressed the wires together. A faint spark jerked his science fair project to life.
“What have you done?” the computer’s voice sobbed, digits and code degenerating.
“I’m sorry, I don’t have an answer for that.”
Tuesday, the boy displayed his anguished miracle of life. He got an A.
Emma Foster is a recent college graduate and fiction writer. She lives in Florida.
The story of the week for August 2 to 6 is…
August and All That by Carolyn R. Russell
White-nosed and Ray-Banned, the summertime soldiers stalk across the beach, resplendent in their neon orange swim trunks and gleaming neck whistles. They eye each other, keeping track, keeping score. One of them is kind, but not so kind that he can be bullied. From him, I’ll learn to stay adrift.
Carolyn R. Russell is the author of “In the Fullness of Time,” a dystopian thriller published by Vine Leaves Press in 2020. Her humorous YA mystery, “Same As It Never Was,” was released in 2018 by Big Table. “The Films of Joel and Ethan Coen,” her volume of film criticism, was published by McFarland & Company in 2001. Her poetry, essays and short stories have been featured or are forthcoming in numerous publications, including The Boston Globe, 3rd Wednesday, Litro Magazine, Flash Fiction Magazine, Club Plum Literary Journal, The Ekphrastic Review, Orca: a Literary Journal, and Dime Show Review. Carolyn lives on and writes from Boston’s North Shore.
When I was a kid, Mom asked, “Can you see the man on the moon?” Peering through my telescope, I searched hard for the astronaut, but only saw big dark blotches. “That’s his eyes, nose, and mouth,” she explained. “See him?”
Fifty years later, I still can’t figure it out.
Charles is originally from New York and is now retired in Texas. He likes playing chess and writing flash.
To surprise the visitor, they bring out their special table, small and rarely used. With great care, they choose and position the treat on a dish gleaming like gold. This temptation should be irresistible. The kitchen falls silent.
From a hole in the wall creeps the mouse, its whiskers twitching.
Sharon lives in eastern Canada. Her work has appeared on 365tomorrows.com. Some day Sharon will look up from the book she is reading and say, “We were in quarantine?”
Bills crinkle. Words crack. Four letters.
Drawers groan. Doors slam.
Toyota roars.
Pick up cell phone. Straight-to-voicemail.
Merlot pops. Glass clinks and tinkles like tears.
TV laugh track assaults.
Words break into regret.
Drawer opens and closes. Picture frame scrapes and lands with a thud.
Air conditioner whooshes. It’s cold.
Yash Seyedbagheri is a graduate of Colorado State University’s MFA program in fiction. His work has been published in SmokeLong Quarterly, The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Write City Magazine, and Ariel Chart, among others.
Bank robbers found themselves fleeing the scene of their crime on foot.
“What was our getaway driver thinking? His car has a rundown battery!”
“He’s probably laying the groundwork for his defense in case we’re caught. He’ll hope to receive a reduced sentence by pleading guilty to a lesser charge.”
John H. Dromey has a short story in the August 2021 issue of Mystery Weekly Magazine.
Time to launch my poem into the world.
The journey begins with abstract watercolors – yellow swirls, purple splatters. I print my poem in 12-pt Arial. Since cutting feels predictable, I rip my words from the page. Once glue hits that wild art, a collage is born.
Blue ribbon – county fair.
Roberta Beach Jacobson is a poet from Iowa. This year she won three blues and two reds.