Tag Archives: loss

MAJOKI: this season since

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, Touching, , , ,

a fresh grave next to yours
preparation for a new sadness
dusting snow from your marker
placing a candy cane wreath,
once festive, looking forced now

a step back into the bitter cold
of December, not Christmas
another goodbye in your last year
still living the “since”
of this season

Majoki has been writing flash fiction for a few years and recently started posting his work on his website, faroutposts.com. He has also begun submitting some of his work and has had a few pieces published on 365 Tomorrows and Free Flash Fiction.

MELISSA WILLIAMS: An Account of the Missing

Submissions, Touching, , , ,

At the departure gate,
the boys hugged you goodbye,
their eyes dry,
the way innocence clings to possibility.

You told me you felt broken,
needed to find yourself,
stop confusing
white powder with devotion,
alcohol with wanting.

Seasons have passed,
fallen leaves,
then snow,

your words preserved in the soil.

Melissa Williams has a Master of Arts in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of Gloucestershire and recently completed a mentorship under author David Bergen at the Humber School for Writers. Her fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Voices, 42 Stories and Academy of Heart and Mind. Prior to becoming disabled, her second home was at Torstar’s community newspaper division where she led an advertising sales team and built life-long friendships. She lives near the beach, in Toronto, with her two sons and their Siamese cat.

NISHA PATEL: Little Shards of Glass

Submissions, Touching, , , ,

Each tiny little shard of glass glinted beautifully on her dark marble worktop as the evening sunlight faded. Her grandmother’s heirloom was truly destroyed. She looked at her paltry hands. The shaking was getting worse. Over the last few weeks remnants of little accidents around the house were building up.

Nisha Patel is a mum, accountant, and chocolate addict. She caught the writing bug over ten years ago while on maternity leave and now squeezes it in between parenting and accounting.

DEBORAH TAPPER: Sea Change

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

They say you drowned. But I glimpse your face through spindrift. Hear whispers waiting in every shell. I dream you dance under moonlit waves, hair streaming weed. Our daughter’s asking questions. I hold her close, knowing she’ll follow you. She cries like a seabird tonight, her eyes reflecting the ocean.

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

MIA DALIA: Haunted

Odd, Submissions, Touching, , , ,

If this is a haunting, I’m afraid you’re not doing it right. No, it isn’t ironic. No, I don’t intend to discuss the definition of irony with you right now. No, I don’t want to fight. Wait. Don’t leave. Please. No, I’m sorry. Of course, of course I miss you.

Mia Dalia is a new author, who until recently, was mainly writing nonfiction – essays and reviews. She can be found lurking anonymously on GR delighting 100s of followers with 50plus reviews each month or on the internet at advancetheplot.weebly.com. Her flash fiction will soon be featured in Flash Fiction Magazine and Night Terror Novels.

CARRIE BACKER: Dancing With Daddy

Submissions, Touching, , , , ,

Every evening little Emma’s outstretched arms beckon Daddy to dance.

Her bright smile and sweet hums linger softly as she twirls and sways.

Double-handed kisses flutter silently through the air as she whispers, “Love you, Daddy.”

Mother smiles and wonders if Emma really sees him or if she just remembers.

Carrie Backer enjoys writing as a hobby and has had the honor of being published at 50WS a few times.

MICHAEL FAGAN: The Last Days of the Humanoids

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

She stared at the comet: a watercolour of greens and violets. The desert air smelled of rain and conifers.

A black swan, disorientated, descended beside her. It is already too late for us, but you still have a chance.

Yet they waited together, sharing the same air, the same fate.

Michael Anthony Fagan is a Scottish fiction writer, filmmaker, and educator. He is a high school English and Media teacher with Masters degrees in both Creative Writing and Screenwriting.

LAURA C ALONSO: Aging Children I Am One

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, Top Stories, Touching, , , , ,

Let me keep my twirling in the grass,
colored chalk and hopscotch–
and my fears.

I held on tight,
whispered at bedtime:
Please don’t let her die.

Grandma’s scent–
the last time that I touched her skin
I cradled her like a child.

She was ninety-three
and I was
age-less.

Laura C. Alonso’s work has been published in In Posse Review, Linnaean Street, 3AM Magazine, SFWP, The Manifest-Station, and other literary journals. She is the former Senior Editor of Fictionline Press and former Fiction Editor of The God Particle, and her fiction has been a finalist in the Santa Fe Writer’s Project’s Literary Awards Program in 2001, 2002, and 2010, as well as a finalist for the Glass Woman Prize in 2012.

RACHEL CANWELL: A Brick on the Wall

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Come with me and I will show you a name on a brick. A brick, fading red, in a crumbling wall. Three rows up, twelve bricks along.
Written there long ago in the smallest, neatest hand. Before the sun set and the clock chimed. And the girl’s name changed.
Forever.

Rachel Canwell wrote this story.

TIM BOITEAU: James

Artistic, Submissions, Touching, , , ,

Gray skies this morning.
Darlene abed.
Make her tea.
See she’s comfortable.
Tells me to quit my bothering. Calls me James.

Rain’s holding off.
Afternoon, split wood.
James?
Chop.
James.
Chop.

Dinner. Potato soup, chives.
Wipe the soup dribbling down her chin.
Won’t talk to me. Leastways, not to James.

Tim Boiteau lives in Michigan, is the author of the dark fantasy novel The Drummer Girl, and a Writers of the Future winner. See more at timboiteau.com.