YASH SEYEDBAGHERI: Dinner Dreaming

Submissions, Touching, , ,

Nick feels shame buying TV dinners. Stroganoff. Salisbury steak.

Others buy steaks, corn. Things that connote family. Families who move about, laughing, sharing secrets, brushing past Nick.

He picks up a steak, marvels at its robustness. Drops in the cart.

Nick imagines a wife smiling across a table.

He smiles.

Yash Seyedbagheri is a graduate of Colorado State University’s MFA program in fiction. His work has been published or is forthcoming in Literally Stories, 101 Words, (mac)ro (mic), and Ariel Chart.

ALISON CARROLL: Holes

Submissions, Top Stories, Touching, , ,

At first I was numb.

I began to notice them two weeks later:
The hole across the morning breakfast table;
The hole in the recliner facing the television;
The hole on the left side of our bed at night.

I wanted to fall in.

Years later, they sometimes still appear.

Alison hates holes.

ALYSSA MINAKER: Tunis Souk

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, , , ,

A mosaic of tables
under tarped tents
littered with clothing.
Men bellow in Arabic
one-of-a-kind prices.

My Mexican origins
camouflage me
among Mediterraneans.
Arabic numbers
I know: hamsah five, talatah three.

I pick through Zara, H&M, and Bershka pleased
to be brown,
to stand elbow-to-elbow as a pseudo
Tunisian woman.

Alyssa Minaker lives in North Africa with her affectionate husband and her even more affectionate Bichon Maltese, Zizi.

BOB THURBER: POWWW (Prisoner of World Water War)

Adventure, Submissions, ,

You’re free to go. Although we have video of you siphoning from government tanks, a benefactor pleaded for your release. A rain-master. He spoke highly of your value, said he’d known you before the conflict, before the oceans seeped salt into every freshwater source, contaminating every lake, stream, and reservoir.

Bob Thurber is the author of “Paperboy: A Dysfunctional Novel” and four collections of short fiction. Regarded as a master of Flash and Micro Fiction, his work has appeared in Esquire and other magazines, been anthologized 60 times, received a long list of of awards, and been utilized in schools and colleges throughout the world. He resides in Massachusetts. Visit his website at BobThurber.net.

JOHN H DROMEY: The Nature of Memory, or Vice Versa

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Two hyperactive squirrels chitter-chattered as they scampered around a picnic table.

“I’m disappointed,” one remarked. “Our old homeplace is not at all like I remember it from when we were kits.”

“I agree,” the other replied. “It seemed to be so much taller before it lost its leaves and bark.”

John H. Dromey’s short fiction has been published in Mystery Weekly Magazine and over one-hundred-fifty other venues.

SOL IBAÑEZ: Music and Masquerade

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

It began with masked nobles contained within castle walls, like pigs in the slaughterhouse. The music was mostly ignored, but if they listened closely, they would’ve wondered how something so elegant and refined can speak of death and chaos so lightly.

It began with music and masquerade.

Then massacre followed.

Sol Ibañez is a writer and illustrator quietly residing on an archipelago in Southeast Asia.

COLIN LUBNER: Johari’s Mirror

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Knew a dude named J. Just the letter. And I didn’t know him. Not really. Told me a theory: people become interesting when they become unknown. Not just to others—to themselves.

He left town soon after.

Maybe he’s come back since. I wouldn’t know; I left soon after him.

Colin Lubner writes (in English) and teaches (math) in southern New Jersey. His work has either appeared or will appear, temporally speaking. He is keeping on keeping on.

SAMANTHA FAELLA: The Last Generation

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, , ,

My children are always curious to look at pictures of my childhood, the days before The Change.

“Mommy, what are you eating in that picture? Is that real fruit?”

Humanity’s plight on earth might’ve started with the bite of an apple, but sadly, it wouldn’t get to end with one.

Samantha is a reluctant 50-word author who write this to prove something to her mother and grandfather. She is a fierce advocate regarding climate change and our planet.

ALYSSA MINAKER: Anniversary

Submissions, Touching, , , ,

The ends of the umbrella flap irregularly in the wind like an injured bird. Stones jab my ribs and spine as the Atlantic splashes between my thighs. Mom’s been gone two years, yet I am here, on her favorite beach, surrounded by people who will never mean anything to me.

Alyssa Minaker lives in North Africa with her husband.