JACK B BEDELL: Marsh

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

I dig my heel into ground. and water fills the dent I make as soon as I pull my foot away.

As a child I’d stand for days at water’s edge casting and reeling. All that ground’s gone now, loosed by storms and salt water, just a ghost, a dent.

Jack B. Bedell is Professor of English at Southeastern Louisiana University where he also edits Louisiana Literature and directs the Louisiana Literature Press. Jack’s work has appeared in HAD, Heavy Feather, Brawl Lit, Moist, Okay Donkey, and other journals. He’s also had pieces included in Best Microfiction and Best Spiritual Literature. His latest collection is Fight Nights (Blue Horsey Press, 2025). He served as Louisiana Poet Laureate 2017-2019.

KAREN UTTIEN: Life Sentence

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

Seventeen. Just got her license. Sun was in her eyes. Look.

Constable notes:

Driver vehicle dented – a reduced tin of fruit at the supermarket.
Recipient – a soda can. Crushed. Ready for recycling.

Mother’s arms wrap her daughter. Consoling. Shielding. Hiding the stretcher covered in sheets. Burying the inconsolable. Refuting prejudice.

Born in Kenya, Karen now lives in Western Australia enjoying life by the beach. She is an aspiring author with an array of short stories dotted around the world.

ALYSON FLOYD: The Matryoshka

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

Her skin droops under the bar’s neon lights, melting away like candle wax. From underneath, a different woman emerges. Disheveled hair. A tattoo sleeve on her arm. Gray eyes that might’ve been green once. With every self she burns through, all that becomes clearer are the screams she hears inside.

Alyson Floyd is a writer, artist, and poet. She hopes to publish a novel someday and then disappear into the woods.

SHARON AVA EZEKIEL: Catharsis

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, , ,

In a parallel universe,
he would ask for my heart.
But this is here, this is now.
Not fantasy, where we walk hand in hand.
Fearless.
And he sacrifices everything for me,
while always wondering,
what if-

Now I sit alone,
even when I’m not alone,
always wondering, what if-

Sharon is a nurse-attorney and writer. She lives in the midwest and her works have appeared in Flash Fiction Magazine, Dying Dahlia Review and 50-Word Stories.

PIPPA ALDER: The Weight of a Small Sound

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

She found the teacup on a dusty shelf as though it had been waiting. It was the one he’d set down between them that morning, steam unfurling, his face unreadable. The clink was small yet carried the weight of the truth he finally spoke.

Lisa Leinberger is an emerging author who writes under the name of Pippa Alder and focuses on flash fiction and short stories. Born in New Jersey, she now resides in Pennsylvania. When not writing, she enjoys photography, reading, and embroidery.

EMILY RYAN: Expulsion

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, ,

Every evening after eating, Eve walks. Her feet scatter geckos at random intervals, the sound of crows warning in the warm air. When she reaches the gate of the cemetery, the sight of wrought iron against the pinkening sky reminds her of leaving Paradise. She has been falling ever since.

Emily Ryan received her MA in French Literature from Middlebury College, where she was awarded the Bombas Prize for Literature. She currently lives in New Orleans, LA, where she enjoys live music, stray cats, and multiple book clubs.

NICHOLAS DE MARINO: Lovebirds

Adventure, Amusing, Submissions, , , , ,

Fresh from Mount Olympus, the Gods’ new matchmakers dove straight into mêlée.

Hapless grasshoppers huddled in harmony. Rabbits hoarded their lucky feet. Lone wolves packed dens.

And humans? They shacked up, too, fleeing flexed claws and rustling feathers.

The switch from bow and Eros to falconry was swift and cruel.

Nicholas De Marino doesn’t trust pigeons, either.

JOE PEARSON: The Modern Brometheus

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , , ,

I built a man from discarded parts, mostly found online. His brain was an alt-right podcast; his heart, an incel chatbot.

I charged his phone with a lightning strike. He scrolled with borrowed thumbs, demanding I build him a female. When the battery died he sat forlorn, staring into darkness.

Joe Pearson is a British fiction writer living in Paris. He’s trying to use his phone less. You can find more of his writing at joepearsonwriter.com.

BERKELEY TURNER: A Vampire Retired

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

I was once considered a monster.

They used to scream from terror, not adoration.
They used to wait with pitchforks, not cameras.
They used to hide when I killed, not watch.

Now when I drink blood, I quench their thirst more than mine. I am no longer the monster here.

Berkeley Turner is a wife, a mom, and a follower of Jesus. She has been published in Liberty University’s LAMP Magazine, 2020.