Read a poem. Discuss a book. Laugh aloud with dance moves.
Study a painting, sipping an ambrosial cup of chamomile tea.
Sit quiet outdoors. Eavesdrop birdies’ scuttlebutt in branches.
Scoop up peanut butter dollops with luscious red apple slices.
Find spot where walls shed peace. Close your eyes and dream.
Judith believes that if she reaches the middle of anything, the rest is doable.
A starry night. She gazes at the sky through the window, choosing to avoid the porch. It brings back painful memories. She wishes she could cast a shadow over the meadow of memories, but they seem to be an inseparable part of her life. A field that stretches on forever.
Thompson Emate spends his leisure time trying his hand at every genre of fiction. His work can be seen in Friday Flash Fiction, ScribesMICRO, Poetry Potion and elsewhere. He lives in Lagos, Nigeria.
Old mermaids, seaweed in their long gray locks, gossip on rocky shores, wavery siren songs floating on turquoise swells.
They tell stories of men who deceived them, of shipwrecks and salvation. No regrets for their vengeful deeds. Tenderness for the lovely boys they swam to shore. Those were the days!
Susan Ritz lives and writes in East Montpelier, Vermont. Her thriller, A Dream to Die For was published by She Writes Press in 2019.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The story of the week for November 2 to 6 is…
EVA by Tim Boiteau
and
Not a Ghost of a Chance by Don Nigroni
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.
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.