ANGELA CARLTON: A New Moon

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

Sleepless, expecting, images flashing of your newborn face.

But my mother’s missing again, cop’s out looking for the “crazed woman” who ditched her meds. It’s the wicked tale that haunts me, life in pieces, s-c-a-t-t-e-r-e-d.

Still, in dreams, you’re born beneath a dazzling sky, child, a new moon illuminating us.

Angela Carlton’s fiction has been published in Every Writer, Everyday Fiction, 6S, 50 Word Stories, Spillwords Press, and Paragraph Planet. In 2018, her story “The Roommates,” was made into a short film. In 2023, her story “Swallowed,” was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. See more at Angela Carlton Stories & Art.

MARY LEWIS: Keep Going

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

Think of something good. My eyes open slowly, like creaky elevators rising to the top floor, the riders not sure if they’re going to make it.

You, I think. But you aren’t something. You are everything.

I squish my toes into the carpet.

Because of you, I start my day.

Mary Lewis loves french fries, her family, and the feeling when the words finally fit together just right.

JAKE HOLLAND: Pink Lingerie From China

Amusing, Submissions, , ,

This is bigger than my package, which is lost somewhere between Greenville, Pennsylvania and Guangdong Province. It’s emblematic of a collapsing society. The social contract has been broken. You can’t afford to buy a house. You can’t get a human on the phone. You can’t order pink lingerie from China.

Jake Holland is an American writer based in the UK. He holds a degree in literature from UC Berkeley. His fiction has appeared in Maudlin House, BlazeVOX, and Gone Lawn.

PAUL D’ARCY: The Big Game

Artistic, Submissions, , , , , ,

My brother asked who I voted for.

“Oh, you know me,” I laughed. We hugged.

Monday Night Football.

This commercial comes on. My brother says, “Can you believe these people?”

I’m like, “I know.”

Fourth quarter, I almost said something.

He handed me another beer. And I just took it.

Paul D’Arcy tells stories. All real. Most brief. You can read more at pauldrc.com.

JR WALSH: Pontoon boats are patient, pontoon boats are kind

Amusing, Submissions, , , ,

During a wedding speech, I declared, “Love is pontoon boat.” My reasoning? Two pontoons side by side, navigating life’s waters, always connected. The metaphor writes itself. I refused to explain, though.

Outrage is required at weddings.

Recent news: Couple Flips Rental Pontoon Boat, Rescued by Coast Guard.

Metaphor floats on.

JR Walsh is the Online Editor at The Citron Review. He teaches creative writing at SUNY Oswego. Find his writing on itsjrwalsh.com.

CATHERINE J DORIAN: Wedding in the Year of an Election

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Cackles and murmurs ululate between us. On the Internet, we collect insults about each other like cans for doomsday, but here, from our respective corners of the tent, we break bread.

Redeem us, the gesture begs to the algorithm that will tag our faces. We hardly mean what we share!

Catherine J. Dorian’s stories and essays have been featured in The Milk House, Adirondack Life Magazine, and The 2026 Best in Rural Writing Anthology. She was shortlisted for the 94th Annual Writer’s Digest Contest for Memoir / Personal Essay and longlisted for the 2026 Ploughshares Emerging Writers’ Contest. She lives with her husband in central Massachusetts, where she teaches high school.

ASHLEY HOLLOWAY: Death Benefit

Adventure, Amusing, Submissions, , , ,

She was his first and third wives, taking him back after the unfortunate demise of wife number two. Few knew of wife number two’s severe allergy to peanuts. The tidy sum collected from her insurance policy payout funded the wedding wife number one thought she deserved in the first place.

Ashley Holloway writes from her kitchen in Calgary, AB.

TRACY ROYCE: Why They Howl

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, , , , , ,

Coyotes are newshounds. Some subscribe to the print edition, but most went digital ages ago. After a day spent hunting and scavenging, they return to their dens, hungry for headlines. Their snouts twitch as they click and scroll. In the evening you can hear their outcry echo through the hills.

Tracy Royce’s words appear in 100 Word Story, 101 Words, Blink-Ink, Five Minutes, and Best Microfiction (2026). Find her on Bluesky.

ELEANOR BUFFAM: Urban Fox

Adventure, Submissions, , , , ,

Fleet are his feet as he flies down the street, fleeing the shouts, fur a blur of red. She awaits him with their three tiny balls of fluff, eyes closed and sleepy. Shaking dew from his whiskers he greets her with a mouth full of chicken stolen for his family.

Eleanor Buffam is an interdisciplinary visual artist, writer, and musician based in Edinburgh, Scotland. She has published short fiction in Fifty Word Stories, Inlandia Journal, Moonpark Review, and the speculative anthology Constellations of Being, and has recently been longlisted for the Oxford Flash Fiction prize.