ANN BRACKEN: Arabber’s Lament

Artistic, Submissions, , , , , ,

Forty dollars. That’s it. All day walkin’ hot alleys. Ain’t nobody want the last corn and watermelon I got here. My feet are burning, my hands are sore from leading this pony.

Now, pony, just one more alley. I’m gonna find you some water.

Watermelon, watermelon, red to the rind.

Ann Bracken has authored two poetry collections, No Barking in the Hallways: Poems from the Classroom and The Altar of Innocence, serves as a contributing editor for Little Patuxent Review, and co-facilitates Wilde Readings Poetry Series in Columbia, MD. Her poetry, essays, and interviews have appeared in numerous anthologies and journals. Ann’s advocacy work centers around arts-based interventions for mental health and prison reform. See more at annbrackenauthor.com.

BRIAN MAYCOCK: The House Always Wins

Adventure, Poetry, Submissions, , , , , , ,

The wheel is spinning.
I am gambling on red.

If this pays off I will be very rich.
It will be the perfect casino heist.
Only…
the traffic light is green. A truck hits me side on.

The wheel is spinning. I can’t control…

This getaway is strictly
no dice.

Brian Maycock lives in Glasgow, Scotland. His short stories have appeared in magazines including Dreamcatcher and The Weekly News.

MICHELLE CHRISTOPHOROU: Glasses

Submissions, Touching, , , , ,

His tortoiseshell glasses lie on a table by his armchair, where his coffee used to steam. He’d put them on to narrate The Twits, demystify long division and, later, to share the cryptic crossword. Alone here now, I tame the unwieldy broadsheet and ink-shape solutions, just as Grandpa shaped me.

Michelle Christophorou’s short fiction has won and been placed in competitions, including the latest Strands International Flash Fiction Competition, and the Retreat West Fire-themed flash competition, for which she received a ‘Best of the Net’ nomination 2019. In another life, Michelle practised law in the City of London. Follow her at @MAChristophorou.

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