PATRICK MC LOUGHLIN: Stain

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

Pulling barbed wire buried in the scrub,
it lightly flicked and nicked the skin.
Found the blueish pulse. Drew the brightest reds.
The colour and size of ladybirds.
And wiping in afterthought onto shirt cloth,
It darkened the sleeve while I carried on.
Alive for a moment, slowly becoming dirt.

Patrick Mc Loughlin is an English Language Teacher in Ireland and dabbles in writing. He also dabbles in painting and music and some day hopes to do more than dabble. He lives in the west of Ireland where it’s hard to concentrate.

SHOSHAUNA SHY: The Sunny Day

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

“I should’ve had more daughters,” said Melinda’s mother, pouring lemonade poolside. “You never tell me anything.”

Melinda inhaled slowly. “My novel got an… award.”

“With how much money?”

“No money. A certificate.”

The mother smirked, shielding her eyes from the sun. “How sad is that.”

Melinda lowered her hat brim.

Shoshauna Shy’s flash has been published by 100 Word Story, Brilliant Flash Fiction, Fiction Southeast, and other online journals.

BOB THURBER: The Appliance Guy Wonders Who Delivered The Chair

Submissions, , ,

We were hugging in her kitchen beside her new stove and refrigerator
and I could see down the hall to the dining room
and beyond to the den where her blind husband was sitting in an electric powered recliner,
a contraption like something NASA produces for space missions to Mars.

Bob Thurber is the author of “Paperboy: A Dysfunctional Novel” and two collections of stories. A celebrated master of Flash and Micro Fiction, his work has appeared in 60 anthologies, received dozens of awards, and been used in schools and colleges throughout the world. He resides in Massachusetts where, despite severe vision loss, he continues to write every day. Visit his website at BobThurber.net.

JIM DOSS: I Close My Eyes to See the World More Clearly

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories,

Unspeakable darkness, slowly illuminating into an alley with dipping gutters. Tenement houses, three mismatched shoes on each doorstep. Girls hawk their wares, calling out over the cobblestones, flirtatious, looking for customers.

God is forever hiding somewhere among the gargoyles.

I fall in love a lot, always with the same woman.

Jim Doss has published two books of poems: Learning to Talk Again and What Remains. He also published a book of German translations entitled The Last Gold of Expired Stars: The Complete Poems of Georg Trakl 1908 – 1914. In his spare time, he is an editor for the Loch Raven Review.

IAN HUNTER: In the Night

Adventure, Submissions, , ,

Noises in the night.
Creature cries.
Sounds of fighting, of pain.

On the grass lies something leathery, scale-like, sticky with blood.
Every day a little bit closer to the house.
Where you keep new knives in unexpected places.
Including one under the mattress, not too far from your stretching hand.

Ian Hunter lives in Scotland and is a writer, poet, and editor.

TONY JASNOWSKI: A Good Curse is Hard to Find

Adventure, Submissions, , ,

According to legend, anyone who stepped on Spafford’s grave would never live to see twenty-one. And, sure enough, Robbie Johnson drowned at sixteen, and Willie Eckerson shot himself at twenty.

So the day Rita Snowberger turned twenty-one we had to celebrate, although I suspect even she shared our secret disappointment.

Tony Jasnowski teaches at Bellevue University, hoping to inspire in his students an appreciation for mystery in life.

DAVID HOLLOWAY: Face

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, ,

I lost my face last night. No eyes so I looked by feel.

So many things feel like a face. A silk scarf, a mud puddle, a love letter, a string of kelp.

I found it and put it on. Then I saw it wasn’t mine.

I wore it anyway.

David Holloway lives, reads, and writes in northern Virginia. He’s had stories published in Gargoyle, The Mad River Review, and The Offbeat. His favorite invertebrate is the Nudibranch.

ANN KENNEDY: First Week of School

Amusing, Submissions, Touching, , ,

After two days, she was infatuated with the bright smile that followed her classmate’s corny jokes.

He conversed with her sister while she watched from afar. She was hit by the realization that he couldn’t tell her apart from her twin.

The next day he moved on to someone else.

Ann Kennedy is a high school student in Chicago, IL.

KAREN TUCKER: Birds

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

A bright pink moulting boa constricts her long and scrawny neck. His battered trilby sports bedraggled pheasant’s plumage.

Perfectly matched, they strut the High Street, clucking falsetto greetings at flocks of old biddies.

At dusk, they return to roost in the nest from which no chick was born to fly.

Karen Tucker has been reading since pre-school and a writer from an early age. She is delighted, so many years later, to have two published full-length novels and five short collections of short stories for sale, mostly on Amazon UK and Amazon USA. She lives in Tunbridge Wells with her partner, and has no children or animals, but a growing collection of interesting friends. Her website is karentucker.me.uk.