Tag Archives: love

NT FRANKLIN: Waiting

Submissions, Touching, , ,

He loved her all his life. He waited, growing up knowing she was out there, even before he met and married her.

The sun settled behind the hills every day, but today had special meaning. He would be facing tomorrow alone for the first time. Now, she waited for him.

NT Franklin writes cozy mystery short stories, nostalgia short stories, and Flash Fiction and has been published in 50 Word Stories, Page & Spine, Scarlet Leaf Review, Fiction on the Web, Madswirl, Postcard Shorts, 404 Words, 101 Words, Freedom Fiction, Burrst, Entropy, Alsina Publishing, Fifty-word stories, Dime Show Review, and more.

JO WITHERS: Time I Wish I Could Recycle

Submissions, Touching, , , ,

Moments wasted in anger:
55 hours arguing over finances,
6 months “discussing” our exes,
8 weeks agreeing to disagree,
18 frosty Sunday breakfasts after you came in late,
3 weeks not speaking over small things,
1 year, 7 months detesting your illness.

Moments missing you:
24 hours, 7 days, always.

Jo Withers needs to remember to make every moment matter. She spends them writing shorts, poetry, and flash fiction from her home in South Australia. She is also author of the middle-grade adventure 5 Simple Steps to Saving Planet Earth. You can follow Jo on Twitter.

SUSAN GALE WICKES: Anniversary

Submissions, Top Stories, Touching, , , ,

I woke long before dawn, shards of moonlight breaking through the faded curtains.

The hotel hadn’t changed much.

Now, twenty years later, I could still see him stretched out on the bed, with that mischievous, just-married look in his eyes.

I touched the urn on the nightstand. “Happy anniversary, dear.”

Susan Gale Wickes is from Indiana. In addition to writing poetry and short stories, she enjoys penning aphorisms and epigrams.

RUSSELL HEMMELL: Hand-Made Hearts

Submissions, Touching, , ,

I’d like to have many hearts to offer you, like hand-made biscuits of several shapes and tastes.

I’d lie them down on the kitchen table, for you to choose one each morning.

Comes sun or rain, there will always be a leftover heart, misshapen, unwanted, neglected, to keep you alive.

Russell Hemmell is an alien from Mintaka snuggled into a (consenting) human host. His recent fiction has been published on Aurealis, The Grievous Angel, New Myths, and elsewhere. See more at earthianhivemind.net.

LISA CHAMBERS: A Love Story

Submissions, Touching, ,

April loved Dylan from the moment she first saw him. His blue eyes pierced her soul. She knew there could be no other.

Crouching down, she beckoned to him. Dylan, husky in breed and build, ran into her waiting arms.

Love born in a shelter, but exactly who rescued whom?

Lisa Chambers is a Texas girl who loves words.

MARIE A BAILEY: The Astronomer’s Wife

Submissions, Touching, , ,

You looked up into the night sky. Saw brilliant stars, expanding universe, mysterious galaxies, endless time. You looked down into my eyes. Saw faint light, boundaries of my soul, simpleness of my mind, the finity of my existence.

I linger beyond the border of light and dark, a black hole.

Marie A Bailey lives in the southeastern U.S. with a supportive husband and three cats. She has been published in The Disappointed Housewife as well as Florida’s Emerging Writers, An Anthology and America’s Emerging Writers, An Anthology of Fiction, Volume I, both by Z Publishing House. She blogs about writing, travel, knitting and cats at 1writeway.com.

CG THOMPSON: What Happens When the Location of the Curve is Unclear, 1970

Artistic, Submissions, Touching, , , ,

“Brake before the curve,” her mother always told her in mountainous terrain.

Senior year, she met him in philosophy class, slept with him when he mentioned love.

“We’re too young to get serious,” he said one night. Permanent goodbye.

Spring semester, he was engaged.

His words were code. Broke her.

C.G. Thompson has two stories in the recently released TL;DR Press’ Women’s Anthology: Carrying Fire. Other stories and poems have appeared in Yalobusha Review, Prime Number Magazine, Fictive Dream, Jersey Devil Press, and Redheaded Stepchild, among others.

FRANCISCO TUTELLA: The Gift

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

He plunged the knife into his chest, carved a circle through the muscle and bone, and withdrew his heart. He placed it in a box and neatly wrapped it.

The day before she left, he presented her the gift, to carry with her to the other end of the world.

Francisco Tutella is a public relations specialist at Penn State University. His work has appeared in Fifty-Word Stories and Wilkes magazine. He holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Wilkes University. Like him on Facebook.

CHIP HOUSER: In the Closet with Carrie

Adventure, Submissions, Touching, , , ,

We were pressed against the back wall behind a tangle of dresses and hangers, the Boone’s Farm in our stomachs rising against the reek of moth balls. Blue and red flashing lights stabbed under the bifold doors, licking my guilty socks.

She took my hand, and suddenly nothing else mattered.

Chip Houser’s short fiction has appeared in Daily Science Fiction, New Myths, Every Day Fiction, and elsewhere. He’s a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop, has an MFA in Creative Writing from UMSL, and thinks cedar is the better option for closets.

ANNE GUDGER: Staring at His Converse Tennis Shoes

Amusing, Submissions, Touching, , , , , ,

“I need to see you,” he says, phone denting his cheek.

She swallows, hard. That “sucking on a penny” taste.

20 minutes later, he rings her doorbell.

“Your dad is dead,” he says, no warmup.

“Oh thank God. I was afraid you were going to tell me you’re leaving me.”

Anne Gudger is a Portland writer who has been lucky to have words in Real Simple Magazine, The Rumpus, Slippery Elm, and more. In November 2017 Anne won two contests: Hippocampus and New Millennium Writings. She lives with her sweet husband, and their grown kids and kid-in-laws live not far.