Gentle wind off the Mediterranean
flutters their white tablecloth’s overhang,
softly touching her bare legs.
“It was fun – we had such a great time!”
Jerking her hand free from her lover’s surprised fingers,
she brushes aside her wild windswept hair,
exposing fierce brown eyes,
and cheeks salty with sunlit tears.
Matthew lives in Maine. He wishes everyone freedom and that no one be left behind or imprisoned or tortured or hungry or suffering in any way. May all beings be happy.
This morning, Sam left for good. Sarah’s mascara ran more than usual. Eventually, the gunk dried on her face like tea leaves in a cup. She tried to read the meanings but got frustrated and cried, ruining them.
No future is harder for a psychic to read than her own.
Carli Wright wrote this. She does a lot of stuff: films, music, photos, etc.
His hands nailed to the walls
His feet in cement
His soul behind bars
Two kids entangled
Dreams broken, now nightmares
She drinks tea and smiles
She contemplates
Her next delicious move
Currents cross the room
His silent thoughts whisper
Freedom
Virtue answers
She leaves
But he still loves her
Patrick Yu aspires to write. He realizes he tends to touch on the darker sides of things. Maybe that will change.
I’d spent enough time at the bar already. My mind was made up. I was the first to say “I love you;” it was only right for me to be the first to say “It’s over.”
I arrived to an empty house, her wedding ring laying coldly on the table.
Ellis says: “I write whatever I can, whenever I can.”
She held the bouquet above the trash; figures he sent flowers, probably something rare. Tropical.
Didn’t matter; it’s over anyway. Guy’s a bore. Freaking entomologist; creepo, always going on about bugs.
Well, it was done.
She glanced down at the bouquet, and felt a sharp sting. Burning sensation.
Then nothing.
Dark, sharp, and short – Liz is a writer living in the wilds of Canada with her black cats and her laptop (the wifi’s pretty good in the boonies). She loves themes of loss, love, and change, all with a twist of something else. Her work appears in all the usual places, but most recently on Spelk, Yellow Mama, Near to the Knuckle and Twisted Sister lit mag. You can find her at lizmcadams.wordpress.com.
Her limbs ached. Her heart ached, too. Wasn’t time supposed to heal all wounds?
She’d caught him in lie after lie. “I never want to see you again!” she’d screamed.
She looked down at the blue planet below. She’d slept five years in the spacecraft’s hibernation pod.
Maybe she’d over-reacted.
AJ Joseph is a bookaholic, semi-insomniac, unsuccessful recovering javaholic, and most importantly a writer. She occasionally writes on her blog, Words from Sonobe.
He gazes at the glass, filled to the brim with whiskey. Too full, she’d say with that laugh of hers. She’d loved whiskey—the burn of it, the promise in it—in a way she’d never loved him.
He lifts it to his lips and tastes her one last time.
Melissa is a writer, teacher, and dog lover in the Middle of Nowhere, Michigan.
It’s a lovely name. Four letters, synchronized and encased within a crimson heart. Forever.
The joyous pulsing within my heart helps sedate the pain of the ink injections.
In the final touches of the artistry, my Twitter account suddenly activates. The needle slips. And scars.
“It’s over,” she tweets. “Forever.”
Glen Benison is a writer of short story fiction, finding themes from everyday happenings that settle in his brain, some of which eventually take seed.
Am I coming back? Wow. Bluntness at last. Good for you. And about time, I must say. Imagine if we had always talked so openly, so directly. I wonder where our conversations would have led us, where we’d be right now. Not here. That’s a fair assumption, don’t you think.
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”. Visit BobThurber.net.
Clinging to the cliff’s edge by his finger tips, James oddly found time to think. He considered his position and in retrospect, he regretted his decision to split-up with Tina near a waterfall. He was never a huge fan of water and was fast losing his love of heights.
Arrrggghhh…
David is getting older by the day.