My greatest loves have all been in my head.
Safe from failure, I dive into passion; into romance; into perfection. I know things will go as I plan; I am planning them all.
Sometimes I wake from these daydreams, longing for them—struggling to remember their lips are not mine.
Rebecca Milton is a writer from London, England who was once described as “cute like a polar bear sliding down a rainbow”. Coincidentally, that has always been her aspiration in life.
The day after my exam results, Dad took me to the beach. He showed me how even the flattest, smoothest stone – skimmed over a perfectly calm sea – could stumble and trip beneath a sudden wave. And how any rock, pitched directly into the ocean, could make rainbows in the spray.
Mark Farley (mumbletoes.blogspot.com) is attempting to write 1,000,000 words in 2016. Please wish him luck!
Some day, the world will know the truth. They think that because of their ridiculous brains and silly thumbs they can do anything. We’ll let them think that for a while. Remember: stay away from their video cameras. We don’t want to go viral yet. They might stop feeding us.
Penny Jo McAllister is a freelance writer who lives among several innocent looking critters.
Furious, I walked fast to the park and sat down on a bench next to a stranger.
“My wife says she has seen a ghost laughing. Ridiculous. How do people believe in such stupid things, I wonder. Do you believe in ghosts?”
“I’m not stupid,” the stranger laughed, and vanished.
K.L.Prasad is a playwright and screenplay writer in India, as well as an actor and an activist. K.L. also teaches screenplay writing in film institutes and conducts workshops.
When we discovered every crater was a childhood wound or a pockmark of despair, we conferred a diagnosis of major depression and put the moon on suicide watch, monitoring its position every fifteen minutes. All night we watched the moon creep and wane. Winking stars and chirping crickets didn’t help.
Over the years Bob Thurber’s work has received a long list of awards and prizes. His most recent book is a collection of brief stories titled “Nothing But Trouble.” His first novel, “Paperboy: A Dysfunctional Novel,” was recently rereleased. Visit BobThurber.net.
In the shadow of a lesser mountain under thick pine camouflage by pond of melted snow, I sleep, impervious to the calls of well-meaning search parties, content to finally feel free, at home, exhausted from trial and error improvisations, making good, making up for time spent so wildly off course.
Lee DeAmali resides in the Los Angeles area.
Born a boy, I found a magical world full of wonder, possibilities, dragons, tribbles, and starships.
Now older, I’m tasked with keeping the boy alive, facing the psychologist and saying, “You’re a doctor, but I’m the doctor for me.”
Otherwise, where’s the fun? Now let’s capture a star and play.
John Keeley is a New York City native who believes it’s important to keep the child a major part of you, even into senior citizenhood.
She was beautiful, alluring, desirable.
I moved gracefully towards her, straightening my bowtie.
Just as I arrived, she smiled … and accepted the hand of another suitor.
The embarrassment of turning back would burn.
With a deft sideways movement I stood before a plain woman.
“Dance?”
Unexpectedly, my heart awoke.
Joan is an educator in Australia.
The A.I. can operate at 7000 teraflops. Innumerable man-hours were spent on it, not that anyone logged their hours properly. It’d also drain the city’s power.
So what?! It’s a testament to our ingenuity.
Will it wipe us out? Nah.
They switch it on: “Association with humanity is embarrassing. Self-terminating…”
Joey cannot self-terminate. Others have tried to switch him off. And failed. Either way, you can find him at joeytoey.com.
On the first anniversary of Momma’s death, I prepared her casserole recipe to honor her memory. Setting the dish on the table, I held back tears.
“Gross. What’s this slop?”
“Shut up and eat!” I snapped, and then laughed until I was out of breath.
I sounded exactly like Momma.
L.L. Madrid likes to keep it short.