MANTZ YORKE: South Pole, 25 December

Adventure, Submissions, , , ,

Icequake from the asteroid hit on Japan. The sky blotted out by dust; snow blackened; crevasses impassable. Communications dead for the past six months.

We celebrate Christmas: dinner is protein biscuits crumbled in water and our remaining brandy. The brandy warms us; later, the cold will numb us to sleep.

Mantz Yorke is a former science teacher and researcher living in Manchester, England. His poems and prose have appeared in print magazines, anthologies, and e-magazines in the UK, Ireland, The Netherlands, Israel, Canada, the US, Australia, and Hong Kong. His poetry collection Voyager is published by Dempsey & Windle.

EILEEN MARDRES: No

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

Stopping was easy. Stay at home, clean the closets, read a book. But the weeks and months run on, and staying home has become the new normal. It is more difficult to restart. When? How? Where? And when everyone stopped calling to say, “Are you ok?”, that’s when I wasn’t.

Eileen was intending to write her way through retirement; that has been supplanted by the need to write her way through the pandemic to once again reach retirement.

DAN BROOK: Anti-Racism Haiku

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, Top Stories, ,

there’s no art in hate
and no joy in ignorance
no racist haiku

we have to uproot
racism, sexism, &
homophobia

stand up to fascists
resisting all racisms
whenever they rear

sweet, gentle being
cops killed him nevertheless
Elijah McClain

racism is wrong
we must have racial justice
to thrive together

Dan Brook teaches in the Department of Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences at San Jose State University.

MONICA PEREZ NEVAREZ: Minimalism, Unwillingly

Poetry, Submissions, , , , , , ,

You are my past, and Oh, how I cherish you.
The artwork, the books; the fine furniture saturated with memories.
You showcase five decades of my successes.

But once I could not pay, none of that mattered.

The storage company will auction you off, breaking my retirement heart,
without regard.

Monica Perez Nevarez is a sustainability consultant during the day and a writer by night, bearing witness to Covid’s ever-expanding collateral damage.

MICHELLE WILSON: Active Imagination

Adventure, Odd, Submissions, , ,

I think my neighbor’s a psychopath with his vacant, roving eyes. Amazon keeps leaving his packages at my door: wood planks, duct tape, a chainsaw. And then: doghouse instructions.

I call him over, laughing. (I’ve always had an active imagination.)

As he steps inside, I see the leash.

“All alone?”

Michelle Wilson graduated from Bennington College with a degree in literature and creative writing. Her words have appeared or are forthcoming in 101 Words, Literally Stories, Flash Fiction Magazine, Lost Magazine, Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood, Healthcare in America, and The Miami Herald. She lives in Miami Beach, Florida.

ERHARD FIRN: Loyalty

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

The first betrayal crawled into my chest, compressed my heart and lungs. It quickly grew its branchlike arms up to my throat, aiming for strangulation. A bottle of whiskey, an old record, and twenty-one days diluted its power. The second betrayal is unable to pierce the shell of misery.

Erhard Firn appreciates loyalty.

VIVIAN LEUNG: When Night Falls

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, , , ,

Sitting on the grassy hill,
the day goes by slow.
Then night falls.

I reached for stars in the sky,
wanting troubles to
end and die.

Only at night can the soul
and body and mind
take a rest.

So, I pray that in its splendor,
the night is long.

Vivian Leung lives in Scottsdale, Arizona and has always held a love for music and writing. One of her goals in life is to land a career in healthcare. There are few things that are more rewarding to her than helping others.

JACKIE HEWITT: Matzo Balls Over Miami Beach

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

When they first changed my diapers
I was cutting my baby teeth on Sinatra’s Miami Beach;
Mafia protection was part of the local landscape.

Fast forward; Miami Beach has risen from its own ashes four times,
I am into my second bout of diaper changes,
The Beach, its fifth resurrection.

Jackie’s sense of irony remains her survival tool in today’s colorful, but confounding world.

JAMES MENGES: Sunday Scrum

Amusing, Submissions, , , ,

It was a weekly family competition. My siblings interlocked and huddled over the table like a championship rugby scrum. Instead of a ball, a plate of Mom’s fried chicken was slipped onto the table beneath the players.

Dad blew a whistle. Game on.

Whoever ate the fastest got the most.

James Menges is a writer and photographer. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America.