Great-gramps was a knight of sorts. I used to fetch his lighter fluid while he told me stories about Wizards and Cyclopses.
When he was still fit, he hiked to Ruby Ridge.
By the time he dropped dead, I didn’t need to ask why Robert Shelton was at his funeral.
Nikita Linivenko has been published once on 101words.org and regularly on blog.reedsy.com.
Night train to London. Just me and you. Is there an us? I don’t know anymore.
I gave you another chance, the fourth time. I have been counting.
You are sleeping. You look so innocent when you sleep.
Next station. Cambridge. Grabbing my stuff and leaving the train. Leaving you.
Jana von Fellenberg loves to drink iced tea while writing essays.
Despite
rough sea stone
and the smell of salt,
deep
deep
breaths,
sips of water,
forced smiles,
looking pointedly elsewhere,
globes of brilliant glass
flowing from palm to palm,
folded fingers
twining fingers
hard fisted fingers,
stretch and twist and bruise;
despite all these dodges
distractions, defenses–
I still cried.
Maria particularly dislikes when her regular coping mechanisms fail, and leave her floundering. She’s having a much better day now.
Memories of lavender perfume, mint toothpaste, gooselike laughter. Zoom screen flickers, sisterly smiles, I-love-you, promise of reunion.
Doses of Diet Pepsi, blank Word document demanding, room’s too big, no cheerful insults rising.
Tchaikovsky on Spotify, strings wailing.
A hug emoji she sent.
A blown fuse, a stuck switch. Won’t budge.
Yash Seyedbagheri is a graduate of Colorado State University’s MFA program. His stories, “Soon,” “How To Be A Good Episcopalian,” and “Tales From A Communion Line,” were nominated for Pushcarts. Yash’s work has been published in The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Write City Magazine, and Ariel Chart, among others.
“Here’s the thing,” she said.
We all leaned in as she stood up, put her hands in her pockets, and examined us over the top of her glasses.
She pulled out a paper clip and tossed it onto the table, nodding as she watched it land. Then she walked away.
Leia Zvya does many things. She is better at some than she is at others, but she tries to find the joy in all of them. This is her first attempt at microfiction.
The story of the week for April 19 to 23 is…
Cancer by Marilyn McFarlane
Refugees from closing time without change for the meter. Emergency candle lit with a zippo. Wine. Chatter. Laughter.
The flame dies. Silence. Quivering kisses.
Four decades later, my hand trembles in a church’s vaulted gloom as a zippo’s flame kisses the wick of a tealight. And I remember another candle.
Andy Hedgecock lives and works in rural Nottinghamshire, UK, close to an Iron Age earthwork, the remains of a Roman fort, a decommissioned coalmine, and a disused railway line. It’s a place of scars, erasures, and stories.
There’s a place where trees whisper and dance. They use their branches to trip unwelcome hunters, or shield sweaty joggers from the sun.
White flowers bloom in hopes that they’ll wind up tucked behind the ear of a young woman, placed there by her lover.
Nature has its own mind.
Julie is currently completing her undergraduate degree in English and creative writing. She hopes to write fantasy novels and shot stories after she graduates.
Another mourning dove
didn’t heed
the door opening,
the scrambling,
panting,
scraping,
of Sofi,
75 pounds of bounding
collie/retriever/chow.
Other creatures-
cardinals, jays, squirrels-
fled the feeder.
This dove continued pecking
at scattered
seed.
Sofi pounced,
the bird
a tossed
tennis ball.
She delivered it,
lady-like
at my
feet.
Again?
Jeffrey G. Moss is a Brooklyn born and bred author. He is branching out more and every day.
Invisible, I wander. Browsing the aisles, makeup disappearing into my Parka. The large pockets slowly becoming misshapen. They think the shape is me. It isn’t.
I pay for my can of beans at the self-checkout, then try to make eye contact with the security guard as I leave.
Still invisible.
Jane Langan writes fiction and poetry and is currently working on her debut novel. Her anthology of poems, Blood Kisses, is available now. Jane has been shortlisted for a number of writing competitions and been published in several magazines. Besides writing, she enjoys photography and tap dancing. She has just completed an MA in Creative Writing. You can see more of her work on her blog, http://howilikemycoffee.blogspot.com.