A colourful gelato cone in hand, and I’m magically back in dolce Liguria: blazing sun, turquoise water, your damp curly hair and laughing mouth. Taking a bite, I crunch; the spell breaks. But then you crunch, and the magic returns. Your silver hair glistening, smelling, as then, of the sea.
Leonie Gregory lives in Australia. She has a passion for photography and writing about her experiences, as well as subjects she wants to explore further.
As the leaves turn on campus, the college freshmen gather at Target with the same bright eyes and school t-shirts you had fifteen years ago. They leave with gaudy pumpkin decor—no one has yet convinced them their tastes are stupid. You purchase only the necessities, longing for new beginnings.
Haley DiRenzo is a writer, poet, and practicing attorney specializing in eviction defense. She lives in Colorado with her husband and dog.
A trip to grandma’s once involved baking cookies, licking spoons and cherishing stories about the past.
Today, the trip involves eye-rolling patience while teaching her to use her smartphone.
Wise old granny is suddenly clueless.
Be not fooled. She is teaching her last, best lesson—aging with grace.
Watch carefully.
A prolific writer, Carol Reeves is loving the freedom and challenge of Flash Fiction. Her stories frequently reflect the vicissitudes and blessings of aging and can be found in Flash Fiction Magazine and 50 Word Stories. Carol’s memoir, “All the Little Miracles,” was published in 2022.
After my release from jail, Dad drives 350 miles away from the guns, thugs, and drugs. The rolling hills and fresh air are meant to calm my restive nerves.
The rural kids are slow learners, which they make up for with loyalty—what every gang leader prizes more than guns.
Chidi Young writes from Jos, Plateau State Nigeria. He’s a teacher, graphic designer, and a photographer who loves to read and write short stories.
That winter, he found endless ways to make her blush—mostly by telling dirty jokes or secret desires, late in the evening when the wind beat the windows and rattled their bones. Then he’d warm his hands against her burning cheeks. In this way, they made it through the nights.
Sam Hall is a young writer from England. When he’s not writing, Sam likes to worry about not writing.
I look into your eyes and see your time-weathered sixty-seven years in your face. I am twenty-three, vibrant, invincible, and hopeful. To see me, you look inside, at a former self. For me to see you, I look in the mirror. We are one, wondering where all the time went.
Jannie Dziadzio is a retired Intuitive Transformational Coach whose last name is impossible to pronounce.
On his 104th birthday he has to ask his great-granddaughter to blow out the candle on the cake.
He says he has two wishes. One, Seabiscuit win the Kentucky Derby. Two, more for emotional than political reasons, FDR get re-elected.
If ever there was one good way to stay young…
John Szamosi is a wordsmith and peace activist who has published over one hundred short stories, satires and poems.
I scratched your initials inside my locker, to touch you each day between classes. I spoke your name under my breath; formed you with my lips, tasted you on my tongue.
You were diner coffee and cigarettes. A baggy black t-shirt meeting low-slung jeans on sharp hips.
That space in-between.
Jean Buie is a lawyer by trade who loves to write fiction and creative non-fiction. She lives in Toronto, ON with her family and her dog, Grimm.
It wasn’t how you bossed and owned the wizard pinball machine, smashing my high score in the process. It wasn’t your jubilant peck afterward, before Becky and Steph enveloped you. It was your sassy walk-off through the clang of the arcade, was the moment I knew I’d marry you.
Raymond Sloan lives and writes in County Down, Ireland. He has previously been published in Blink-Ink, 101 Words, Nanoism, Potato Soup Journal, and 50-Word Stories.
She laughs with the breeze
as it sweeps through the town,
men — liquor-fueled and free
with their words — lean on the
bar as the music plays, the
streets are alive with the full
moon and the festivities. Trees
outside rattle and shake, the
town thrums and the night is
young.
FC Malby is a contributor to anthologies published by Reflex Press, Unthology, and Litro. Her collection, My Brother was a Kangaroo, includes stories published in various journals worldwide. See more at fcmalby.com