SUSAN R BARCLAY: Museum

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Both fond and traumatic memories coexist in my static eight-year self. I spend decades collecting markers of your existence. All things September, the month of your birth. Mid-century décor, each piece a thrift store find. Coins – relics from your year of expiration. I am the curator of an abbreviated life.

Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Susan R. Barclay makes persistent attempts at witticism and stories; sometimes she is successful. Her works have appeared/are forthcoming, in the The Blue Nib, Vine Street Press, Defuncted Journal, Write Time, Paragraph Planet, Workers Write, and the 42 Stories Anthology.

TITI KUSUMANDARI: Two Portions of Fried Rice, Please

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

Across his shoulder pole hung rice, eggs, condiments, and a stove. He’d stop beneath our student windows to sauté some garlic, to let its scent slip inside the rooms. We cursed his tricks, swore to resist; yet every time his wok hissed, we went down in shame, cash in hand.

Titi Kusumandari is a writer based in Brussels, Belgium. Their work has appeared or is forthcoming in Pr&ta Journal, Lost Balloon, Anodyne, Chestnut Review, among others.

MICHELLE WILSON: Technically Incompatible

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

I ignore your endless texts; prioritize friends, hiking, the gym.

You’re needy and overbearing; a people pleaser with no life of your own.

“I can be whatever you want me to be!” you wail.

“That’s the problem,” I sigh.

And putting you back in the box, I wait for UPS.

Michelle Wilson graduated from Bennington College with a degree in literature and creative writing. Her words have appeared or are forthcoming in Wigleaf, Gooseberry Pie Lit, The Daily Drunk, Bending Genres, A Thin Slice of Anxiety, Rejection Letters, Maudlin House, Litro Magazine, 50-Word Stories, Flash Fiction Magazine, Potato Soup Journal’s Best of 2021 Anthology, Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood, and elsewhere. Her story ‘Fish Brain’ was nominated for Best of the Net 2022. She lives with her partner in Washington, DC.

LYNN WHITE: Loss

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, , , ,

The door was unexpectedly locked.
He found an open window
and climbed in.
She was lying there
on the bathroom floor
dead
beyond revival.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” they said
but the greatest loss was hers,
the one who was
dead.
He knew then that irony
was still alive.

Lynn White lives in north Wales. Her work is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality. She has been nominated for Pushcarts, Best of the Net and a Rhysling Award. See more at lynnwhitepoetry.blogspot.com and www.facebook.com/Lynn-White-Poetry-1603675983213077/.

THOMAS MALLOCH: Dressed to Kill

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

For fishing trips, she would tie her own flies, taking the due care which her grandfather had taught. Like him, her feathers of choice were rooster, mallard flank, and pheasant tail.
Come evenings, she would dress for dinner, meticulously attentive to the detail. And, as with the flies, lethally attractive.

Thomas Malloch began writing in retirement. Short stories, mostly. Sometimes very short. Once or twice a year he gets published which raises his sprits, perhaps more than it should.

WILLIAM MITCHELL: These Aren’t the Thoughts You’re Looking For

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, , , , , , ,

The headaches – some days I can’t even focus, let alone work.

Squad medics didn’t care. “Compulsory invalid discharge” – military speak for “useless,” “fired.”

Ever since that day, when they had us hunting those droids, and that old man waved his hand and my mind wasn’t my own.

It still isn’t.

William Mitchell lives in East Sussex in the South of England. He is an award-winning author, having had early success with various Horror and Science Fiction publications before winning the Writers of the Future contest in 2012. His first novel, CREATIONS, came out in 2014 with John Hunt Publishing.

NICK DI CARLO: Waiting

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , , ,

I walk into the VA hospital and pass through two crowded waiting rooms, urology and oncology, before reaching my waiting room: neurology. Each space overflowing with men along in years, Vietnam carved into our faces, we sit and wait. Time ticks away. We wait. Wait. The waiting. Not long now.

Nick Di Carlo has been knocking around this planet for seven decades and a bit. He writes short stories to avoid looking into mirrors and watching clocks. His stories can be read in Muleskinner Journal, Flash Fiction Magazine, Guilty Crime Story Magazine and Shotgun Honey.

JOHN SINGH: Shared Loss

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , , ,

The news reader’s voice broke. She faltered, then started to cry. The camera cut away to a pre-edited package. This was no simple obituary. Regular programming was interrupted, because he was dead. Around the world, mourning had begun. I watched, eyes dry, and touched the scar he left that night.

A former journalist and communications consultant in the entertainment industry, John Singh has written countless newspaper articles, press releases, and speeches; a number of short stories and a couple of novels. He’s still waiting to hear back from agents on those. Some of his work can be found at jswrites.com.

JOANNA NORLAND: How Lonely?

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, , ,

“Wanna know how lonely I am?” she asked. “The last time I went through airport security, I ‘forgot’ to take off my belt, so that I would set off the alarm and the officer would give me a pat-down. She did a perfunctory, routine search. I revisit the moment daily.”

Joanna Norland is a playwright and writing coach.