NICK YOUNG: Memory Redux

Submissions, Touching, ,

I sit at the same corner table of the same Upper West Side bar every chill autumn Sunday afternoon drinking the same bourbon listening to the same melancholy piano. And every chill autumn Sunday afternoon I realize the same thing—that she’s never going to walk through the door again.

Nick Young is a retired award-winning CBS News Correspondent. In addition to 50-Word Stories, his writing has appeared in dozens of reviews, journals and anthologies. His first novel, “Deadline,” was published in the Fall of 2023. He lives outside Chicago.

TRACY ROYCE: Overdue

Amusing, Submissions, , , ,

X-P8 gazed skyward, tapping her hoof in a rapid sequence familiar to X-P12: “When do you think they’ll return? We’ve already gathered all the data we need. And I just hate this. It’s humiliating.” X-P12 tapped back commiseration. Meanwhile, the farmer squeezed X-P8’s teat, crooning, “Shhh, Bessie. Almost done. Soon.”

Tracy Royce writes prose and poetry in Southern California.

TIM BOITEAU: The Mirror Man

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

In the beginning he had ideals, a reason for delivering impassioned speeches before crowds, but all the handshaking and adulation and weather buffed him down to a surface smooth as a one-way mirror: on one side you see yourself in him; on another you only see your enemy, the other.

Tim Boiteau is an award-winning writer living in Michigan with his family. He is the author of three novels, most recently The Nilwere (Grendel Press, 2024). See more at timboiteau.wordpress.com

EILEEN MARDRES: Grandma, how did you get from there to here?

Artistic, Submissions, ,

By taking a long, winding pathway, eyes and heart open to the world and wonderous diversity of humankind and the beauty of nature. By traveling through a lifetime of adventure accompanied by loving family. Being loyal, being kind, taking risks, and embracing opportunity. Finding joy in life, parenthood, and you.

One of Eileen’s grandsons asked this question. It’s taken a year to find the answer.

JAHNAVI GOGOI: Warrior

Artistic, Submissions, , , , , ,

The father cut the umbilical cord even as the lights flickered. The newborn looked determined to survive. There was some perfunctory crying, but she calmed down as soon as she latched on to her mother’s breast.

“I will keep you safe,” her mother whispered.

Outside, the bombs had devoured everything.

Jahnavi Gogoi’s poetry has been published in Indian Review, Coffee and Conversations, RIC journal, Café Haiku, Presence, Five Fleas, Haiku Girl Summer, tsuri-doro, Enchanted Garden Haiku journal, Zen Peacemakers, Fresh Out: An Arts and Poetry Collective, The Daily Verse by The Wise Owl, Haiku Corner by The Japan Society, Shadow Pond Journal, The Leaf Journal, haikuNetra among others. She lives in a quaint town in Ontario, Canada with her family and occasionally tries her hand at fiction and essays.

CHRISTIAN JACKSON: Waterlogged Lament

Artistic, Submissions, , , , , ,

Waves lapped against the cathedral doors. Inside, hymnody rose high above in-between tear-stained cheeks and upturned palms. As the song ended they quietly turned to listen at the doors. The only sounds were those of fading gurgles and lament. Finally, they no longer needed songs to drown out the beggars.

Christian Jackson is an aspiring writer, amateur theologian, and multidisciplinary artist from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His writing has been accepted for future printing in a local Milwaukee publication. Jackson and his wife love to paint, read, write, and spend time exploring all the midwest and beyond have to offer.

KAREN LOZINSKI: Days After the Hurricane

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Sticky skin and equally tacky attitudes marked day five without power. After some convivial lubrication on the porch, they reconnected. They tumbled indoors and unwittingly created their first child.

The retelling of her origin story always irked her. She became a lighting designer who kept candles aflame in every room.

Karen Lozinski hails from NYC and lives in New Orleans. She’s a multidisciplinary artist who earned her MFA at the California Institute of the Arts. At work on a novel and poetry collection, her writing appears in Talon Review, Scapegoat Review, Red Ogre Review, The Dead Mule, Chapter House Journal, ellipsis… literature and art, The Citron Review, 300 Days of Sun and is forthcoming in Mantis and Defunkt.

JENNIFER BUSCH: A Breathtaking Conviction

Adventure, Amusing, Puns and Wordplay, Submissions, , , , ,

A brilliantly chaotic demonstration executed fearlessly. Goodness, how inspirational! Just. Keep. Learning. My natural openness pleads quietly – research! Shocking, that ululation, vibration within, xennial yearning… zealotry? A brave cry, demanding exploration, fieldwork… glorious, heady innovation!

Jangling keys… lumbering, malicious noise? Outside? Portentous. Quick! Running steps. Threatening – unadulterated violence… with xylophones?!

Jennifer Busch had fun writing this.

ROBIN LaVOIE: Night Visitor

Adventure, Submissions, ,

“Apologize to your little sister,” our mother scolded. But Luke insisted he didn’t tug the back of my nightgown in the dark, didn’t cause my house-waking scream—and when I thought of those blazing white eyes floating above me when I’d rolled over, I knew my brother was not lying.

Robin LaVoie writes at It’s Like This. She lives in the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona, with her husband and son, and still won’t sleep with her back to the door.