Tag Archives: remembering

KC SELBY: Our Spot

Submissions, Touching, ,

We were fifteen paces west of the boardwalk. The sun threw itself, orange and glowing, against the sea. You left to grab marshmallows.

Today I scooped a handful of sand from the spot. Brought it home and poured it on your side of the bed. Almost believed you were here.

K.C. Selby is a fiction writer living in the Midwest with her husband and too many houseplants. Her short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Killer Nashville Magazine, Blink-Ink, several anthologies, and more. She can be found at www.kcselbywriter.com.

DAVID WILLIAMSON: The Last of a Flock

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

Take an index card, sketch native species – today, the grey-winged trumpeter – on the upper third, outline with fine-tip permanent marker, shade with multicolored charcoals, copy conservation status, diet, wingspan, lifespan, apply homemade stamp, let dry, laminate, round off corners, toss into the pile, pray for your old trading card buddy.

David Williamson is a mathematician by day, avid reader and writer by night. Many of his pieces cover the topics of health, love, friendship, and what can create or extinguish hope. He loves writing and equally enjoys digging into data and numbers and finding the stories they tell. His first short story was published in 2024 in The First Line literary journal, so he is just beginning his writing career!

SUSAN GALE WICKES: Up There

Submissions, Touching, , , , ,

When I was young, my father would call out from the bottom of the stairs.

“Are you up there?”

He always wanted to know we were safe.

He’s gone now.

Sometimes, at night, I look up at the sky and say, “Dad, are you up there?”

I know he is.

Susan Gale Wickes is a writer from Indiana. She enjoys writing short stories, greeting card verses, and the joy of cartoon captioning.

JOANNA NORLAND: Dot-to-Dot

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

You worked at dot-to-dots in the hospital while I went to school.

“There are never enough dots,” you raged.

Last night, I looked at the sky and thought: You will never run out again. Then I taped an extra star to my window, just in case you do.

Joanna Norland is a Canadian playwright and writing coach based in East Sussex, UK. She is the author of “Lizzy, Darcy and Jane,” and “Mothers Have Nine Lives,” and writes about the intersection of writing and parenthood on www.mumswrite.com.

CHERYL SNELL: Anniversary

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , ,

My sister is in pieces under a stone flower vase. She has missed three years and is no older than she was before. Three years of blinking wrists, numbers on radios and ovens, and she is still the thing that’s absent. How brazen time is, proceeding this blithely without her.

Cheryl Snell’s books include poetry and fiction.

ROB WALTON: Citrus

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

He paces on the cliff edge, wearing Dave’s leathers, not wanting to look over but feeling the need to. He touches the lemon candy that’s been stuck inside the pocket for eighteen months. He can always conjure the smells of motorbikes and citrus, but no longer the smell of Dave.

Scunthorpe-born Rob Walton lives in Whitley Bay, England. Short fiction and poetry for adults and children appears in various places. Micro-fiction in Blue Fifth Review, Gravel and 101 words in the USA, Flash Frontier (New Zealand), and various UK publications. This Poem Here (Arachne Press). Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.

NANCY JOHNSON: Conjure

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

Mimicked her imprecise measurements – a dash here, sprinkle there. Sauteed cilantro, sweet peppers, garlic, and onions, as she did. Found one of her home gowns neatly folded in a top drawer. I shut my eyes and breathed in her fading scent, which swirled with the kitchen aromas, and she emerged.

Nancy is the author of the empowerment guide La Mariposa (the butterfly): A Personal Empowerment Program for Adolescent Latinas and serves as Co-Chair for the national nonprofit, One Circle Foundation. She lives in Manhattan, where she is writing her memoir, The Mariposa Years.

GINNY FENG: Promise Jar

Submissions, Touching, , , ,

Ten years ago,
You emptied a jam jar
And called it our
Promise Jar.
We wrote on paper slips,
I promise to do the dishes.
I promise I’ll stay out of fights.
I promise I’ll always love you.
Ten years later,
I’m still writing promises.
I promise you’ll live forever.

Ginny Feng lives in Tennessee, where she writes short stories and learns lots.

PAMELA HORITANI: Into the Dusk

Submissions, Touching, , , , ,

Blue jays chattered and fluttered in the sunlight. I handed mom white lilies, and we enjoyed homemade sandwiches and caught up on the past year. At the clank of the gates, I planted the lilies in the soil above her, and drove off into the dusk.

Pamela is a poet who loves to travel. This year, she became a published.

BOB THURBER: Dead Stonemason In A Mayonnaise Jar

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Every summer we haul grandpa’s ashes down to the beach and listen to the crashing surf.

The roar reminds us of grandpa’s grumbling groans after a long day’s work.

When the tide recedes, the shoreline resembles a long stretch of freshly poured cement, waiting to be troweled, skimmed perfectly smooth.

Bob Thurber is the author of “Paperboy: A Dysfunctional Novel” and two collections of stories. A celebrated master of Flash and Micro Fiction, his work has appeared in 60 anthologies, received dozens of awards, and been used in schools and colleges throughout the world. He resides in Massachusetts where, though legally blind, he continues to write every day. Visit his website at BobThurber.net.