Tag Archives: nature

YASH SEYEDBAGHERI: Raked History

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , , , ,

I love to rake. There’s a power in drawing leaves, clearing muck and nature’s chaos. It keeps me outside musk-filled rooms, much too big. For a moment, I smile; then I remember malaise, arguments, slammed doors. I tear my rake into earth and emptiness and whisper sorrow. More leaves tumble.

Yash Seyedbagheri is a graduate of Colorado State University’s MFA fiction program. His stories, “Soon,” “How To Be A Good Episcopalian,” “Tales From A Communion Line,” and “Community Time,” have been nominated for Pushcarts. Yash’s work has been published in SmokeLong Quarterly, The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Write City Magazine, and Ariel Chart, among others.

LILLIBIT RAY: Wild Wisdom

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Sitting, barefoot in alpine meadow surrounding his cabin, he spoke to her, “Deep wilderness has no bridges, but it has no stop signs either.”

Silence.

They watched coyotes running, marsh hawks hunting, and she realized she needn’t look further than the posturing pines to witness true freedom in this world.

Lillibit Ray has always written in her own personal journals, and she has taken several creative writing classes which helped her to develop and evolve a story or poem using real life experience and richer characters to bring the story or poetry to life. She has had poetry published in Dark Winter Literary Magazine, with the Dark Poet’s Club, and with Scars Publication. She writes on her own, for herself sometimes.

JUDITH DZIERBA: Fifty Words for Cicadas

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Over a decade underground
on tree sap survival
creepy crusty shells
crawl through earth
leaving exoskeletons’
nutrients near trees.

Emerge meta-morphs,
wings as stained glass
in green tinted bodies
with falsettos in tune
to a summer’s ending.

Only weeks left above ground
attracting their mates
to lay eggs by trees.

Judith wrote this unable to ignore critters that remind her of the circle of life.

ROBERTA BEACH JACOBSON: Far From Any Harbor

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mountains protect
the quaint village
keeping it remote

although unmapped
the hamlet is spotted
by whirling drones

excited tourists
skip through the gates
spilling into streets

hiding in shadows
villagers tremble
silencing their lutes

once the music stops
the tourists retreat
no longer enchanted

at nightfall
villagers gather
strumming anew

Roberta Beach Jacobson is an author, poet, painter. She makes her home in Iowa.

DEB DiTOMASO: The Will

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He lumbered into O’Shea’s like a beaten horse. I tipped my glass. He declined. I thought of the irony, him girdling the trees as our dad lay dying to birdsong. I signed the waiver, allowing him to gut and rebuild what should be leveled and turned into a dog park.

Deb DiTomaso is a graduate of Sacred Heart University with a bachelor’s in science. She lives in Connecticut with her husband, a dog, and a bunch of chickens. Crafting stories is her passion. Her middle grade novel GRAM RIDDER placed as a finalist in CT Tassy Walden Awards for New Voices in Children’s Literature.

SAM HALL: Collaboration

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He paints spiderwebs with a single-hair brush, “enhancing” their beauty with vibrant colours. This renders them too garish and brittle for catching flies, forcing the spiders to abandon their webs or starve to death. When talking about the spiders with his friends he always refers to them as his “collaborators”.

Sam Hall is a young writer from England. His work has previously appeared on FiftyWordStories.com. Sam enjoys exploring various genres, with a particular interest in flash and micro fiction that weirds the normal and normalises the weird. When he’s not writing, Sam likes to worry about not writing.

BOB THURBER: Midnight Rendezvous

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

Meet me in the marsh, beside the pond near the windmill.
There are willows there, Cattails, distant hills, tree frogs and katydids.
No sign of anyone.
I’ll bring a boat made of folded newspaper.
We’ll watch the moon climb through the branches.
You can never see it all at once.

Bob Thurber is the author of six books. Regarded as a master of Flash and Micro Fiction, his work has appeared in Esquire and other magazines, been anthologized 60 times, received a long list of awards, and been utilized in schools and colleges throughout the world. He resides in Massachusetts. Visit his website at BobThurber.net.

DOMINIQUE GÉLIN: I love you and nothing else

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , , , ,

Because the previous gods had created one apocalyptic fiasco after another, fraternization among The Entities was now forbidden. But that didn’t stop The Sun and Death from stealing kisses whenever they got the chance. They grew bolder and their love burned brighter, until a scorched Earth was all that remained.

Dominique Gélin is a writer based in Los Angeles, CA. Her book, Heebie Jeebies: 31 Creepy Stories You Can Read in 5 Minutes Or Less, is set to be released October 2024. You can learn more about her work by visiting her website at dominiquegelin.com.

CATE COVERT: Legacy

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , ,

A biggish spider
dangling from a forgotten corner of the porch
suspended, dead, by its web,
endured the harsh Winter winds
and blowing rains of impending Spring.
It died in Autumn,
with legs curled to its abdomen,
fluttering at the end of its enduring silk,
looking remarkably like star anise.

Cate Covert has been regaling friends and family with her tall tales since she could talk. She loves engaging with her reading audiences. Her poetry, flash fiction, and humorous stories reside at Cate Covert on Chadashah.org and her Inspirational essays and bible studies at Pastora Cate’s Corner on Substack.

MARY VAN BEUREN: The Hollow Tree

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Smoke rings poured out of the hollow tree’s mouth.

A nasty habit but one she couldn’t break. Simple pleasures.

And it would be the death of her from the inside out if she weren’t already dead.

The fire department came, cold water to quell the moldering. The hollow tree endures.

Mary has written prose and poetry and journaled throughout her life. In 2011 her essay, Cheating Death, won second place in Shelia Bender’s Essay Writing Contest. Currently Mary is preparing her memoir, Novice, for publication and working on a book of short stories.