JENNIFER STITT: Resuscitation

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

The surgeon cracked open the cocoon that was your ribcage and held your heart in his hands. He cradled it cautiously, cupping his palms as if encircling a fluttering moth. I cannot remember what he told me after—only the sound of his voice breaking when he said your name.

Jennifer Stitt is a PhD candidate in US intellectual history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her writing has appeared in Aeon, Aura Literary Arts Magazine, Chronically Lit, Essay Daily, Guernica, On Being, Public Seminar, and other places. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama, and is currently working on a book about the history of solitude.

ROBERTA BEACH JACOBSON: In Sun or Shade

Submissions, Touching, , , , ,

Jeffrey searched the florist shop for a unique plant for Mom. Once he spotted the leafy hosta, he asked the clerk to wrap it up with a floral birthday card. He opted to deliver it himself.

Jeffrey died in 2017, but his birthday greeting to his mother continues each spring.

Roberta Beach Jacobson lives in Iowa and can be found on Twitter at @beach_haiku.

ZOEY ROWAN: Out of Sight

Artistic, Submissions, Touching, , ,

So many times I have made the bed. The corners are tucked in tight, the creases smoothed out. Are the folds crooked?

My shadow slides over dark wood panelling as I circle the room. Its movement surprises me; I flinch.

His presence looms large: his raised arm, his clenched fist.

Zoey Rowan is a copywriter, content writer, and translator living in Berlin. When she isn’t writing short stories she can be found trying out new recipes or biking around her city.

THAD DeVASSIE: In Memoriam

Submissions, Top Stories, Touching, ,

Two Adirondack chairs with flecks of white peeling paint, side by side, slightly cockeyed under the hedgerow’s green shadow. They hold no bodies today, just a little morning rain and thoughts of what could have been. It’s a quiet meditation, a memorial of sorts, to the fleeting perfection of pairs.

Thad DeVassie’s work has appeared in numerous journals including New York Quarterly, Poetry East, West Branch, Barely South, Unbroken, PANK, Lunate and Spelk. His chapbook, THIS SIDE OF UTOPIA, is forthcoming from Cervena Barva Press. A lifelong Ohioan, he writes from the outskirts of Columbus.

STEPHANIE KING: On the Reflected Counter

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

You upload your post-protest selfie from a much nicer bathroom than your own, and while your other friends are commenting on your bloody, angry welts, I’m noticing the two toothbrushes in the cup, and wondering whose expensive towels you’re bleeding on and what heartbreak you’re setting yourself up for now.

Stephanie King is a past winner the Quarterly West Novella Prize and the Lilith Short Fiction Prize, with stories also appearing in Loch Raven Review, Lumen, Entropy, and Every Day Fiction. You can find her online at stephanieking.net or @stephstephking on Twitter.

PONTIUS PAIVA: NowHere Man

Artistic, Puns and Wordplay, Submissions, ,

It has been theorized that the universe materialized out of nothingness, the past and future exist simultaneously in the present, and mere observation affects and alters reality.

It could be said that what we see as ‘now here’ was made possible by a space created in the middle of ‘nowhere’.

Pontius Paiva’s stories are as intangible as the consciousness they spawn from. Abstract proof of his existence can be found at pontiuspaiva.com

VERNAE COFFEE: It Is Not

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

It is not the darkness,
but the light refusing
to shine into that place.

It is not the argument
we had over breakfast this morning,
but the years of silence.

It is not the murder of one man
on one day
but the systemic oppression
of human beings for centuries.

Vernae is new to the world of publishing, but is enjoying every moment of it. She began submitting her work for publication in 2018 and has been published several times. Her unpublished Children’s Book “Teddy Wet My Bed” was selected as one of five Finalists by Eyelands 2019 Book Awards in the Unpublished Books Category. Vernae is praying for healing and health in our nation and the world.

HARRY DEMAREST: Anti-War Protest, 1971

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Thousands of demonstrators marched down Main Street in Champaign-Urbana, waving banners and shouting.

They were followed by hundreds of police, there to keep order.

Afterwards, the news condemned the demonstrators for smashing store windows.

Everybody believed it, except for the peaceful demonstrators, and the police who actually broke the windows.

This is a true story, according to Harry Demarest’s good friend R.B., who watched it all from the rooftops.

ESZTER MOLNAR: Priorities

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

I could have stolen the sandwiches but I needed the shoes more. The beach was busy but nobody noticed me. They rarely do during the day.

The boys come for me after the pubs have closed. Restless, bored, vicious.

But tonight I won’t be kicked or punched. Tonight I run.

Eszter Molnar is a former teacher who lives by the windswept British seaside. She has been published in one of the UK’s biggest subscription magazines for children. By day, she cleans up after preschoolers, by night she writes flash fiction, picture books and Middle Grade fiction.

HARRIS COVERLEY: Medical Marvel

Amusing, Odd, Submissions, , ,

“I’ve never seen ovarian cysts in a man’s neck before,” said the doctor, snapping his gloves off.

“Pardon me,” I said, “but I came here about the rash on my hand.”

I held up the offending appendage.

He stared at it for a while and eventually declared: “…That’s athlete’s foot.”

Harris Coverley has fiction published or forthcoming in The Scribe, Trembling With Fear, and The J.J. Outre Review. He is also a Rhysling-nominated poet, with forthcoming verse in Spectral Realms, Corvus Review, The Oddville Press, and many others.