SUSMITA MUKHERJEE: Goat on Ganesh Lane

Amusing, Submissions, , , ,

Sunglasses-clad, the goat gnawed a bright red sari like candy. Shopkeepers bickered over whose festival idol it offended. Tourists snapped selfies; children clapped and whooped. I offered steaming chai. It licked my hand, blinked once, then trotted off, pausing only to nibble my neighbour’s winning lottery ticket. Chaos officially certified.

Susmita Mukherjee is an Indian author and former teacher at Army Public School, based in Kolkata. Her work explores human tenderness and oddities in everyday life. She writes with precision and empathy, finding humour and strangeness in ordinary moments.

THOMPSON EMATE: Alone

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

This time, I was travelling alone. Would see, know and relish alone. We had anticipated another sunny moment. I noticed her glow and blossoming after our last vacation, but then she opened another door—a door to the celestial, a door to spiritual solitude. It was another strange discovered path.

Thompson Emate is trying his hand at every genre of fiction. He has a deep love for nature and the arts. He lives in Lagos, Nigeria.

MARC YOUNG: Life of the Party

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

I have my father’s charisma. It wasn’t a gift—I stole it while he slept. Now I dominate the room, my voice crushing the endless chatter of the guests, forcing all eyes to mine.

And in the back, hunched against a wall, my father glares wordlessly, wishing he were me.

Marc Young lives in Seattle and writes speculative fiction, sometimes using more than 50 words.

ERICK LIMA: Green

Adventure, Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Green as the sea. Green as envy. Green as the eye of the dragon who raided Ms. Hobblefinch’s garden. She grew monstrously big greens. And would invite her friends to drink red wine and smoke. They used to laugh and tell tall tales, of what they had fed the garden.

Erick Lima is a wanderer and writer.

JINJIA GRACE HU: A Prescription

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, Touching, , ,

Sixty grams of blighted wheat. Twenty grams of licorice. Ten dried dates. One longan. Four rose buds, and a few Goji berries.

A note I found tucked in the very back of Ma’s bottom drawer two weeks after her death, three years after Pa’s. A Chinese herbal prescription for heartbreak.

Jinjia Grace Hu was born in Nanjing, China, and lives in New York with her cat, Almond. She is an MFA candidate in creative writing at Columbia University. Her stories appear or are forthcoming in The First Line, The Bloomin’ Onion, Bright Flash Literary Review, and elsewhere.

CANDACE WEBB: I Insisted on the Beach, and Now This Rock Will Determine the Fate of Our Marriage

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

I frisbee the flattest rock into the water. The ocean roars, but you are silent, arms folded, looking away from me. Sullen because you hate the beach. I hold my breath and wait to see if the rock will skip. If it does, I stay. If it doesn’t, I leave.

Candace Webb (she/her) writes from Belmont, MA on the traditional territory of the Pawtucket people and the Massachusetts tribal nation, where she lives with her partner, two children, and two cats. Her human companions are tame; her cats are not. You can find her work in Five on the Fifth, Emerge Literary Journal, and Defenestration. Her work was nominated for the Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize anthologies in 2022, and she was a finalist in Room Magazine’s 2022 Short Forms Contest. She is a reader for Flash Fiction Magazine.

JS O’KEEFE: Murmuration

Artistic, Submissions, , , , , ,

Thoughts and actions begin, and go nowhere.

Birds are different. A wing shifts, a body turns, and it passes through the whole flock. They take off as one, landing somewhere far.

If birds are capable of holding a conviction, it’s that evolution is not all it’s cracked up to be.

J.S. O’Keefe’s work spans short stories, essays, and poems. They have been featured in a variety of publications, including AntipodeanSF, Roi Faineant, 101 Words, Everyday Fiction, Spillwords, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, 50 Word Stories, ScribesMicro, Dissident Voice, 50GT, etc.

OLIVER CUBILLOS: A Tropical Staycation at the Statue of Liberty Lagoon Motel

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Mama’s rubbing sunscreen all over my face.

“We’re at the White House,” I say.

“No,” Mama says. “The Statue of Liberty, but not the real one, neither.”

Lotion gets in my eye, and I start to cry.

“Washington’s born here, y’know,” she says, and for a moment I believe her.

Oliver Cubillos is a writer and filmmaker from Los Angeles, California. He holds a BFA in Media Arts Production with a minor in literature from Emerson College. His work is published or forthcoming in Heavy Feather Review, BULL Magazine, Free Flash Fiction, and elsewhere.

JOHN H. DROMEY: Mixed Signals

Amusing, Submissions, , ,

Not a jealous bone in his body—robots are made of metal after all—Rob should have been the perfect bodyguard, an unlikely rival for the affections of Jim’s girlfriend.

Programmed to be charming, entertaining, and attentive, Rob stole both her heart and the tickets for Jim’s planned honeymoon cruise.

John H. Dromey has had short fiction, humor, and poetry published in many different venues.