ROSALEEN LYNCH: Paper Cranes

Artistic, Submissions, Touching, , , , ,

The paper cranes are folded from receipts for doctors, buses and climate magazines, from my five year old’s drawings of our family, prescriptions for her meds, sweet wrappers and cigarette packets, and hang now to be counted, over her hospital bed, one more for every day since she didn’t die.

Rosaleen Lynch, an Irish community worker and writer in the East End of London, pursues stories whether conversational, literary or performed and believes in the power of words to make the world a better place.

BEN MIMMACK: Look to the Future, Not the Past

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

Everyone else is a newcomer. He lived here before they built the road. Before the road gave rise to the houses. Before the houses necessitated the church and the pub. But now they need a school and an old tree can’t be allowed to stand in the way of progress.

Ben lives in Dallas where he is viewed with tolerant amusement by his wife and two small boys. He has just started writing micro fiction and hopes to get better at it.

STEPHEN PISANI: Kid Hits a Homer

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

The crack of bat on ball rings in Danny’s ears. He sprints toward first base but doesn’t watch the ball soar over the fence. His teammates yell; evidence enough for him.

As he rounds third base, he glances at the space in the bleachers where his father used to sit.

Stephen Pisani is an MFA candidate in fiction at Adelphi University. He spends his spare time working at a golf course, where he watches people chase a little ball around a big patch of grass.

MANTZ YORKE: South Pole, 25 December

Adventure, Submissions, , , ,

Icequake from the asteroid hit on Japan. The sky blotted out by dust; snow blackened; crevasses impassable. Communications dead for the past six months.

We celebrate Christmas: dinner is protein biscuits crumbled in water and our remaining brandy. The brandy warms us; later, the cold will numb us to sleep.

Mantz Yorke is a former science teacher and researcher living in Manchester, England. His poems and prose have appeared in print magazines, anthologies, and e-magazines in the UK, Ireland, The Netherlands, Israel, Canada, the US, Australia, and Hong Kong. His poetry collection Voyager is published by Dempsey & Windle.

EILEEN MARDRES: No

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

Stopping was easy. Stay at home, clean the closets, read a book. But the weeks and months run on, and staying home has become the new normal. It is more difficult to restart. When? How? Where? And when everyone stopped calling to say, “Are you ok?”, that’s when I wasn’t.

Eileen was intending to write her way through retirement; that has been supplanted by the need to write her way through the pandemic to once again reach retirement.

DAN BROOK: Anti-Racism Haiku

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, Top Stories, ,

there’s no art in hate
and no joy in ignorance
no racist haiku

we have to uproot
racism, sexism, &
homophobia

stand up to fascists
resisting all racisms
whenever they rear

sweet, gentle being
cops killed him nevertheless
Elijah McClain

racism is wrong
we must have racial justice
to thrive together

Dan Brook teaches in the Department of Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences at San Jose State University.

MONICA PEREZ NEVAREZ: Minimalism, Unwillingly

Poetry, Submissions, , , , , , ,

You are my past, and Oh, how I cherish you.
The artwork, the books; the fine furniture saturated with memories.
You showcase five decades of my successes.

But once I could not pay, none of that mattered.

The storage company will auction you off, breaking my retirement heart,
without regard.

Monica Perez Nevarez is a sustainability consultant during the day and a writer by night, bearing witness to Covid’s ever-expanding collateral damage.

MICHELLE WILSON: Active Imagination

Adventure, Odd, Submissions, , ,

I think my neighbor’s a psychopath with his vacant, roving eyes. Amazon keeps leaving his packages at my door: wood planks, duct tape, a chainsaw. And then: doghouse instructions.

I call him over, laughing. (I’ve always had an active imagination.)

As he steps inside, I see the leash.

“All alone?”

Michelle Wilson graduated from Bennington College with a degree in literature and creative writing. Her words have appeared or are forthcoming in 101 Words, Literally Stories, Flash Fiction Magazine, Lost Magazine, Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood, Healthcare in America, and The Miami Herald. She lives in Miami Beach, Florida.

ERHARD FIRN: Loyalty

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

The first betrayal crawled into my chest, compressed my heart and lungs. It quickly grew its branchlike arms up to my throat, aiming for strangulation. A bottle of whiskey, an old record, and twenty-one days diluted its power. The second betrayal is unable to pierce the shell of misery.

Erhard Firn appreciates loyalty.