Tag Archives: relationships

ADELE GALLOGLY: Frat Party

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

After he invites her to escape beery ’90s karaoke, they eat seedless watermelon beside a humming dishwasher. Their mouths flood with someone else’s fruit. They wash their fingers in silent mode—smiling, blinking. Whose kitchen is this, again? One of them wonders. The other is already pretending. Ours. Ours. Ours.

Adele Gallogly lives and writes in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in a number of places, including the 2025 Bridport Prize Anthology, Flash the Court, NUNUM, and Gastropoda. Find her on IG/BlueSky: @AdeleGallogly.

LISA CHAMBERS: Falling in Love

Submissions, Touching, , , , ,

I loved him from the moment we met. It all felt so exhilarating and new. I melted into his sweet blue eyes and a smile that would forever steal my heart.

He’s 25 now. Soon he will be singing praises of his own.

My first grandchild is due this week.

Lisa Chambers is a Texas girl and writer. Love always wins.

ROBERTA BEACH JACOBSON: Pampered

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, , ,

I thought I knew you well. Obviously I was wrong. For your birthday, I bought the fancy caramels sold in the red tin. They were pricey.

“Yuck,” you said. “These are the imported ones.”

So now I have no boyfriend and a half-empty container of the most delicious caramels imaginable.

Roberta Beach Jacobson (she/her) was born in Massachusetts, but has also lived in Oho, Illinois, Iowa, and Europe (Germany and Greece). She is the author of Demitasse Fiction: One Minute Reads for Busy People. She edits Five Fleas Itchy Poetry and smols poetry journal. In her blended family, Roberta is the mother of two, grandmother of five.

ROBERT ALLEN ARNOLD: Pizza Fog in an F-150

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

It’s freezing outside, hot pizza boxes on the front seat, fogging the windows.  He’s risking his life for what – pepperoni?

He arrives at her house, the pizzas cold and hard.

“You need to learn to cook,” she says.

He bites his tongue, still hungry and forty dollars farther from home.

Robert Allen Arnold is a native of Seattle who now lives near the Pacific Ocean.
His work has appeared in a variety of publications, anthologies and media.

JIM PARISI: Personal Effects

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, , ,

Her text read, i left it out on the porch, in a silver adidas bag. No explanation. No apology for last night. No reply when I asked to meet her. Just this dead drop of our relationship. I opened it when I got home. It was some other guy’s sweatshirt.

Jim Parisi lives in Occupied Washington, D.C., with his wife, Beth, and their dog, Dolce. His writing has appeared in Hippocampus, The Good Life Review, and FlashFlood, among others.

CYNTHIA CHRISMAN: Barren

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , ,

I left my apartment door ajar for her. Mom sat with her coat on, behind her newspaper, on the only piece of furniture in the barren living room. She wouldn’t look up. I stacked the last box of dishes by the exit. I hoped to bolt before Larry returned home.

Cynthia Chrisman, a semi-retired homeopath from Boston, is an emerging writer working on her first blended memoir. She is having another love affair: writing micro prose.

NANCY BAGATO: Dance Like the Dead are Watching

Amusing, Submissions, , , , ,

Inez stalked into position and began dancing. Hustle. Twist. Interpretive. Chicken. Electric Slide. Macarena, because he hated it. Salsa, because he refused to learn and accused her of cheating when she went alone. Her heels tore new sod. She smiled, dropped her wedding ring, and strutted out of the cemetery.

Nancy Bagato collects words and images to turn into bite-sized stories. When not writing, she is reading, making art, or substitute teaching.

STEVEN HOLDING: Just Dessert

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, , , , , ,

I’m Vanilla, lingering on sticky fingers, comfortably familiar.

She’s Viennetta, exotic mint choc chip flavour, craved daily, saved for special occasions.

I envy the amnesiac, forgetting significant events, how such treats taste celebrating another birthday. Who remembers death dates and correct funeral cake etiquette?

Left to melt; another Sundae service.

Steven Holding lives in the United Kingdom, where he writes because he has to. You can follow his work at www.stevenholding.co.uk.

IMAAN FAROOQ SHEIKH: Flowers in the Rain

Artistic, Submissions, ,

I stay inside and watch you leave, soaking up the rain. Soon, you will return to your own home, to your window where red begonias are hanging from terracotta pots.

My window remains bare. All the flowers are inside my lungs, sprouting from stalks that I simply can’t contain anymore.

Imaan is a writer and poet with an insatiable love for books, art, and nature. Born in Karachi, Pakistan, she has studied architecture but now dabbles in microfiction.

CHIDI YOUNG: Phew!

Amusing, Submissions, , , ,

I knew a beautiful woman like her deserved more. That’s why my sleeves were always rolled up. She never complained, but I saw it in her eyes, the way she looked into the stores whenever we drove past.

Now she’s with her boss, a richer man.

Never felt so relieved.

Chidi Young writes from Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria. He’s a writer, photographer, graphic designer, and a content creator.