Tag Archives: joy

MELANIE WINKLOSKY: Sunrise

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, , ,

On mornings such as this I know:
The earth was created by children
who watch us from above, and say
“Look at my picture!” and wait for our smile
“Come outside and play!” and wait patiently there
Waiting and hoping that we might remember
To listen. To marvel. To play.

Melanie Winklosky is a fiction writer trapped in a grant writer’s body. She lives in Swampscott, Massachusetts with her husband and dog, in what those who don’t understand call her “empty nest,” cheering on her children as they chase their dreams.

LYNN KOZLOWSKI: Ride

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, Touching, , ,

The old man delivers groceries in the neighborhood. One leg is stiff. He works to climb the slightest hill. He uses a child’s red wagon. When routes allow, he folds his bad leg onto the wagon, and, poling with his good leg, he rides in style down the small hills.

Lynn Kozlowski has appeared in The Citron Review, The Zodiac Review, Molecule, 50-Word Stories, Bright Flash Literary Review, Every Day Fiction, The Dribble Drabble Review, Friday Flash Fiction, Switch, and The Malahat Review. He has a volume of short pieces, Historical Markers.

TOM MAHER: Life Unlived

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

Ate well; never drank. Walked; never ran. Looked both ways crossing the street, but otherwise kept his head down. Never loved. And the idea of kids was far too big. Lived to ninety-five, settled down into a hole in the ground, and nobody knew what to write on the headstone.

Tom Maher is a writer from London who was shortlisted for the 2025 Bridport Prize.

KATHERINE ROSE BRAUN: Sunday Special

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Making breakfast was our moniker for baby-making sex. Sausage and eggs, please! we’d laugh.

Now we’re sitting in a sticky booth with our baby.

“What’s your order, dear?”

“Coffee,” you say.

The waitress turns to me.

“Sausage and eggs!” I beam.

But you say nothing. Your tired eyes look away.

Katherine is a stay-at-home mom. Writing is helping her stay sane.

RACHEL SALAMATIAN: My Ghost is Leaving

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

“Don’t rush to be on the other side,” he says. “I’ll be, you know, around. Bear it a little longer. God forbid, enjoy it.”

During bedtime, he told me about the parasailing accident. My life made him realize how bountiful his own was. He accepted his brief life and death.

Rachel Salamatian is a Filipina-American writer whose work has been published or is forthcoming in Eunoia Review, Northwest Review, and Inklette Magazine. She lives in Chicago and works as a computational social scientist.

SARA KATE EGAN: True Treasure

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

“Well, it’s still fun to look, Grandma!” I reassure her.

Our evening beach hike was turning up no coveted yooperlites. Searching for Lake Superior’s glowing rocks is her favorite pastime.

“Fluorescent sodalite makes them light up!” Grandma raves, spellbound. We stroll. I smile.

I’ve already found what shines brightest here.

Sara Kate Egan finds inspiration in a diverse natural world surrounding her in the Upper Midwest, be it wild woodlands, Great Lakes, colorful prairies, or curious critters within such special places. Writing locally flavored microfiction is her favorite thing, although sometimes a nice enough poem will strike. Watch out, world!

SARAH FLICK: In the center of her universe there is a ball…

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

My labrador, Dosh, waits. I throw. Released, she grabs it mid-air, showing off, then returns. I throw again; she’d retrieve forever.

If I could, just once, experience the joyous muscle-music I witness when Dosh clamps her jaws around a soggy tennis ball, I could face anything in this challenging world.

Sarah Flick wrote this story.

LAUREN VOGEL: Independence Day

Artistic, Submissions, , , , , ,

On a sweltering July afternoon, the hospital door whistles shut behind Sarah as she watches a little girl, carried by her father, lick a rainbow sprinkle off her chin, her cheeks rosy and full like Sarah’s own used to be before she started counting everything. This time will be different.

Lauren Vogel is a writer and artist whose work is featured in Nowhere Girl Collective and on her Substack, OwlPerson.

LORI O’BRIEN: The Eighth Color of the Rainbow

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

The sun shines down on trail-walking tree-hugging leaf-swishing green and wave-wading sand-sinking shell-seeking blue while memory-lost family-forgotten depression-ridden gray looks through cloudy eyes and clouded windows at rain-cloud skies. Wake up! Be the blue-gray mist on a morning meadow; be the green-gray sage of eucalyptus. Embrace gray to the end.

Lori O’Brien, an English and Creative Writing student at SNHU, gets her inspiration walking along the ocean in coastal New Hampshire and hanging out with her senior miniature poodle, Artie. Her work has been published in Snoozine Magazine.

LYNN KOZLOWSKI: Outside the Ice Cream Shop

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Four tanned old women sit on a wooden bench. Friends in shorts and colorful tops. No conversation. Each is working on a generous, diet-breaking, double-scooped ice cream cone on the sweltering day. They are happy, engrossed in the cold pleasures of their choices. No worries but the race against drips.

Lynn Kozlowski’s writing has appeared in such places as The Citron Review, The Zodiac Review, Molecule, 50-Word Stories, Every Day Fiction, The Dribble Drabble Review, and Friday Flash Fiction. He has a volume of short pieces, Historical Markers.