Tag Archives: loss

FELICIA SANZARI CHERNESKY: How to Comfort a Mountain

Poetry, Submissions, Top Stories, Touching, , ,

The day came you woke a wife and went to bed a widow, your grief a lead curtain pulling shut against the sun.

If I climb, plant flowers, will you allow the rain?

Let lonely clouds wander. Let rain come. Spring also.

Your grandchildren will bear armfuls of daffodils, laughing—

Felicia Sanzari Chernesky is a longtime editor, slowly publishing poet, and picture books author. In 2018 she moved away from the masthead to work with people who want to share their stories, ideas, and poems in print. Her poetry received a 2020 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards honorable mention. Her short fiction was nominated for a 2021 Pushcart and Best Microfiction. She lives with her family in Flemington, New Jersey. Find her online at feliciachernesky.com.

LUCY TOMLINSON: The Day the Wind Blew Harold’s Wife Away

Artistic, Odd, Submissions, , , ,

Elbowing open the back door, he shouted his daily love letter to his wife: “Cuppa tea?”

A brazen wind from the garden stole his words away. He glanced around to mime instead, but found no audience.

The kettle whistled urgently.

He turned back inside, shrugging. “She’ll be in soon enough.”

Lucy lives in England and tries to write and read as much as life allows. Sometimes she wishes the wind would blow her away, too.

MEG POKRASS and JEFF FRIEDMAN: Loss

Artistic, Submissions, Touching, , , ,

My son stared into the terrarium, plush mushrooms rising like trees with red caps over the crystal gravel. “He’s gone,” he said. “What will we do without Sam?” he asked. I kissed him on the forehead. Then he pressed his face against the glass, staring at the tiny unlit stars.

Meg Pokrass is the author of six flash fiction collections, an award-winning collection of prose poetry, two novellas-in-flash and a forthcoming collection of microfiction, Spinning to Mars recipient of the Blue Light Book Award in 2020. Her work has appeared in Electric Literature, Washington Square Review, Wigleaf, Waxwing and McSweeney’s. She is the Series Founder and Co-Editor of Best Microfiction.

Jeff Friedman’s eighth book, The Marksman, was published in November 2020 by Carnegie Mellon University Press. He has received numerous awards and prizes for his poetry, mini tales, and translations, including a National Endowment Literature Translation Fellowship in 2016 and two individual Artist Grants from New Hampshire Arts Council. Two of his micro stories were recently selected for the The Best Microfiction 2021.

LAURA BESLEY: Separate(d)

Submissions, Touching, , , , ,

“June?”

I turn at the sound of her voice. Same height as me, same build, her face a reflection of my own.

We try to compress fifty years of missed hugs into that first one.

“Look,” she says. “Same coat.”

We laugh, twin snorts escaping at exactly the same time.

Laura Besley writes short fiction and squeezes her writing into the bookends of her day. She has lived in Holland, Germany, and Hong Kong, but now lives in land-locked central England and misses the sea. Her flash fiction collection, The Almost Mothers, was published in March 2020. She tweets at @laurabesley.

LAURIE MENDOZA: Mind Fullness

Submissions, Touching, , ,

Xanax helps, but crushing anxiety can still drag her under. Just before the interview, she clicks on a new guided meditation.

You’re lying on a tropical beach. Feel the sun warming your face. Breathe in deeply.

She smells salt,
Hears someone yelling Riptide!
Sees her son leaving her.

Tastes tears.

Laurie P. Mendoza is an elementary school counselor and children’s author who has been published in Spider Magazine. She also dabbles in playwriting and personal essays. This is her first attempt at microfiction.

TERESA DEL MASTRO: The Master Puzzler

Submissions, Touching, , ,

The Master Puzzler is gone now.

Her delicate hands used to glide across the pieces, choosing keys and locks, like chocolates from a jewel box.

The cover was always overturned. She said, “You’re not doing the puzzle if you look at the picture.”

I sit alone, piecing the remaining fragments.

Teresa Del Mastro lives in Toronto. She has co-authored, with Kerry Hodgson, a collection of ten coffee break meet-cutes called Sugar with that?

TOM O’BRIEN: Take Me, Not Her

Artistic, Submissions, Touching, , , ,

The universe hears you and grants your wish.

Your daughter’s eyes open. She’s lying between skid marks and doesn’t know why. Pain is proof of life.

The sirens called for her surround you. Through first responder feet she sees the braided bracelet she made you wear.

Her wish goes unheard.

Tom O’Brien has words in numerous places including EllipsisZine, Reflex, Spelk and Blink-Ink. His Novella-in-Flash Straw Gods is published by Reflex Press. He’s on Twitter at @tomwrote and his website is tomobrien.co.uk.

LAURA BESLEY: Silent Cries Echo

Submissions, Touching, , , , ,

On the eve of each full moon, the Elders meet.

“Betty and Jim,” the Chief says, her long earrings jangling, “are struggling. She’s too pale. He’s drinking too much. Someone needs to take them under their wing.”

I remember the pain of an empty cradle. “I’ll do it,” I say.

Laura Besley writes short fiction and squeezes her writing into the bookends of her day. She has lived in Holland, Germany, and Hong Kong, but now lives in land-locked central England and misses the sea. Her flash fiction collection, The Almost Mothers, was published in March 2020. She tweets at @laurabesley.

JONATHAN KOSIK: A Minor Comfort

Submissions, Touching, , , , , , ,

Before the last shovelful. Before the words spoken in the rain by the mound. Before the whispering ventilator. Before the cough that stole the taste of food from his tongue. Before the state of everything changed.

Long before. My father hugged me after a scraped knee. A minor comfort… everlasting.

Jonathan enjoys playing out of tune solos on his daughter’s ukulele while she demands he stop. He enjoys writing very short fiction and very long fiction. At this point in his life, he is beginning to suspect a thief is at work stealing his hair while he sleeps.

MARC LITTMAN: First Laugh

Submissions, Top Stories, Touching, , ,

The Navajo celebrate a baby’s first laugh. It’s considered one of life’s special moments like when a newborn cries. They pass around salt, once prized for its scarcity.

My baby never cried or laughed, but I still taste salt in the tears I shed for him after all these years.

Marc Littman is a short story writer, novelist, and playwright inspired by everyday life.