Tag Archives: beauty

RE FEINER: In the Eye of the Bog Witch

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

Conventional beauty standards lurk over Marsha’s modeling career as her hairstylist hacks at her self-image. Her agent sneers at her tears, “Maybe you’re not cut out for this industry.” Cast aside, Marsha finds solace in the marshlands. She grows native plants and feeds wild songbirds. They can see she’s beautiful.

R.E. Feiner has been writing for over ten years with over five years as a Marketing Specialist. At the end of 2024, tech layoffs forced her to reevaluate her career. As such, she rediscovered her love for creative writing. You can find more of her work on Instagram, TikTok, and Lemon8 at @book_void.

JENNA MONTOYA: Laughter Leaves

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

You laughed when I said I wanted to be a tree.

Time and age chewed on my youth, wrinkles turned my smooth skin to bark, and my bones creaked when the wind blew hard. You planted me deep down.

Our great grandchildren laugh in my shade.

Jenna is a religious fanatic, a marriage fanatic, and a motherhood fanatic. She has too many farm animals and not enough farm in Houston, Tx with her husband and three beautiful, brilliant babies.

STEVEN HOLDING: Sketched From Memory

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

Paper, barely white, ashen like your complexion, faded charcoal shading, smudged not erased.

Each time, it looks a little less like you.

You seldom model, but were you here, I’d place a page upon your face, trace the outline of a smile.

Instead, I pierce the surface with sharpened lead.

Steven Holding lives in the United Kingdom. His story TURNING A TRICK appears in the collection BLOODLUST from Black Hare Press. You can follow his work at stevenholding.co.uk.

CHRISTINA NORDLANDER: Midnight Sun Forest

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

I’d assumed the midnight sun would be special. All I saw was a low, dull sun; watery light.

A luminous gloom filled the space between the tree-trunks, flattening all colours. I pulled flowers: catch-fly, lady’s mantle.

A cascade of dew spilled from one. Momentarily, I saw a rainbow at midnight.

Christina Nordlander lives outside Manchester, the UK, with her husband. She has published approximately 30 short stories and other pieces, primarily within horror and dark fantasy.

ABBEY PARENTE: Dusk Diary

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, , , ,

Yesterday the sunset happened to me. Facing the West in earnest, the sky in my open mouth, I tasted the colors like they were sorbet from a street vendor, mangoes and strawberries and tangerines.

Then I went back inside, sent four emails, and clicked “Add to Cart” ten more times.

Abbey is a 22-year-old living in Brooklyn, NY. Her writing has appeared in her high school’s newspaper and the journal on her bedside table.

DEBORAH TAPPER: The Wishing Tree

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

She knots the pretty scarf around a branch already rippling with countless strips of fabric. The oldest are only rags now, ghosts of forgotten hopes and desires. She whispers her wish against the gnarled trunk before driving away, leaving the murder weapon to flutter and fade like every other dream.

Deborah writes at an old desk surrounded by five hundred pet bugs.

MATTHEW CURLEWIS: Unstoppable beauty?

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, , ,

Try the glistening sun-splash of a wave as it breaks,
or the brightness of close friends as they all laugh together.

Plumb a gemstone’s depths as it glimmers, shines and glows,
or gaze in awe as a snowflake dazzles purity and perfection.

In such moments, it’s waiting for you there.

You can find additional words by Matthew Curlewis at Bright Side Writings – optimism-led, fortnightly-ish (slightly longer than 50-word!) stories to brighten these dark times of chaos and collapse.

ROBERT CARLBERG: Starry Starry Night

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

I look up into the vast bright sweep of the Milky Way in the moonless sky and think sadly of all the love songs, all the treacly poetry, all the sappy rhymes that are now obsolete.

The stars really are stunning tonight.

Thanks entirely to the astonishing hubris of mankind.

Robert Carlberg writes when he’s not busy not writing.

CHARLES C GAINES: Drapes of Dusk

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, , , , ,

The drapes of dusk
descend across the forest.
Four thin daggers of sunset
pierce the dark fabric,
shining through tightly woven wood.
Bright needles, burning orange
and red, glowing hotly.
The last shouts of daylight
in the slumbering wildwood,
quietly succumbing beneath
the gloaming’s weight.

Charles C Gaines is a recently retired former gunfighter, school teacher and coach, general dentist living in Fort Worth, Texas. At 73 years of age, he has begun to take seriously a life-long love of poetry, writing on a wide variety of subjects that capture his attention.

DEBORAH TAPPER: View from a Cliff

Adventure, Submissions, , , , ,

He’s impatient, insisting she experiences this fantastic view. It’s spectacular, definitely worth the strenuous climb. Turquoise sea, golden rocks, shy wildflowers. Swooping boat far below, sails billowing. He’s standing right behind her, laughing, pointing everything out. She suspects his uncharacteristic enthusiasm. Sidesteps just in time.

He barely makes a splash.

Deborah writes at an old desk surrounded by five hundred pet bugs.