JP GOGGIN: Lockdown

Amusing, Submissions, , ,

William clutches his toy Transformer and peers out the front window. Why can’t I play outside? he asks. We’re in lockdown, I tell him.

Then we spot a bent old man, maskless, red hat, walking a dog serenely along the sidewalk.

“Look, Dad!” William says, pointing. “One of the zombies.”

JP Goggin is a lifelong fiction writer and current MFA (Fiction) candidate at Antioch University Los Angeles. His work has appeared in Prospectus Literary Journal, Chantwood Magazine, FronteraFest Short Fringe, and Flash Flood Journal (upcoming), among others. He is a retired Naval Aviator and lover of coffee. Visit him at jpgoggin.com.

JENNIFER L FREED: A Week After My Mother’s Stroke

Artistic, Submissions, Touching, , ,

When the clusters of doctors come making their rounds,
she’s sorry there aren’t enough chairs.

She lets them ask all their questions, feel her pulse,
shine their lights in her eyes,
then apologizes—she can’t offer coffee or tea.

When they smile their goodbyes,
she invites them to visit again.

Jennifer L Freed writes mostly poems, and sometimes very short stories. Find her at @jenniferfreed20 or jfreed.weebly.com.

KEN GOSSE: Watching her Beau from a Bough

Amusing, Poetry, Puns and Wordplay, Submissions, , ,

She wore the pink bow
which would grace her trousseau
as her new beau would row
down the river, so peaceful,
so lovely and slow.

But when he saw how
she was watching me now
as I gazed from a bough,
I decided I’d better
bow out of that row.

Ken Gosse usually writes short, rhymed, light poetry but sometimes departs from that. First published in First Literary Review–East in November 2016, later in The Offbeat, Pure Slush and others. Raised in the Chicago suburbs, now retired, he and his wife have lived in Mesa, AZ, over twenty years.

BILL COX: Messages from the Beyond

Amusing, Submissions, , ,

Two siblings had been obsessed with the afterlife all their days. When she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, she undertook to contact him from the other side.

After her funeral he received a text from an unknown number.

“Brother,” it said, “I made it!

“But the roaming charges are terrible.”

Bill is living the dream in Aberdeen, Scotland. Unfortunately, he’s not sure whose dream he’s living.

SARAH BERLETTI: She Liked to Read Dickinson

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

I figure if I paint the walls clean enough and the color is neutral enough my landlord won’t mind. If he won’t let me out of my lease I need to change the four walls somehow. Her blush is still staining the wall she used to lean on while reading.

Sarah is a student at The New School where she is exercising her writing craft and preparing for a career in the field. She is constantly being inspired and reinspired by her life in New York City, and her protagonist origin story that brought her there.

ROBERT BURNS: Re-entry

Amusing, Submissions, , , ,

Vaccinated. Antibodies ready to protect. Carpe diem.

Target is busier than I remember. Is that man wearing a mask? I can do this.

People chatting. It’s been so long since I’ve heard this many voices. So much noise. I can do this.

Did someone cough?

I can’t do this yet.

Robert Burns is busy writing and editing his first full length thriller novel that will be published later this year. Please follow him on Twitter to keep up with his progress, for all book updates, and hopefully a few laughs.

ELIZABETH BARTON: Overzealous

Amusing, Submissions, Touching, , ,

The tinny melody finds our ears. “Ice cream!” we squeal through unfurling grins.

Granny supplies the funds. Drumstick for Chris, pushup for me. Licking eagerly, I inch the sherbet cylinder skyward, taunting fate.

Powerless, I watch its slow-motion topple. Despair, a creamy orange puddle, bleeds outward on the hot pavement.

Elizabeth Barton has been making stuff up for most of her life. A day job as a medical writer pays the bills, but her true passion is fiction. Her work has appeared in Gemini Magazine, Skirt!, and Prime Number Magazine, among other journals and anthologies. She loves cats, ice cream, Halloween, and Hungarian aggressive piglet jokes.

MARCIA M WALKER: Swan Boat Ride

Submissions, Touching, , ,

Dressed in Easter finery, my cousins and I
rode the Swan Boats.

My little patent leather pocketbook,
holding a dollar,
fell into the pond.

As it floated
away, the young boat pedaler
took a long pole and rescued it.

Back at our grandmothers’,
I hung my dollar
out to dry.

Marcia M. Walker was born in Boston in 1946 and grew up in Brookline. She is married and is the mother of two sons, with one grandchild.

RODNEY E SCHMIDT: Challenge the Order

Submissions, , , ,

The patient said she was ready. The blue and white pills lay in front of her. The doctor showed her the numbers on each piece of medicine and stressed how she needed to consume them in order.

She took pill seven instead of pill one and laughed when nothing happened.

Rodney E Schmidt is an MFA candidate with the University of California, Riverside’s creative writing program. Past creative pieces have been published in the Pacific Review, The Coyote Chronicle, and High Voltage magazine. Currently, he resides in Loma Linda, California.