Tag Archives: community

CAROL HUEBSCH REEVES: Together Again

Submissions, Touching, , ,

A buzz of good humor hangs in the air, filling my now empty rooms. The walls still reverberate with thrice-told tales and leftover laughter. Each beloved guest adds unique gifts to the crazy quilt of our family. I wonder—do they feel the comfort I feel from the lingering warmth?

Carol Huebsch Reeves embraces the freedom and creativity of Flash Fiction. Most of her stories speak to life’s joys and challenges. Her work is often found in Flash Fiction Magazine and 50 Word Stories. Her memoir, “All the Little Miracles,” was published in 2022.

DAVID A LEE: Heartbeat from the Plains

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Red dust clung to his moccasins as the bus groaned east. Behind him, mesas hummed; wind drummed songs through cedar bones. In white hospital halls, he stitched wounds gently, his people’s breath guiding each thread. Pine Ridge pulsed within him, steady, sorrowed, sacred, a heartbeat he would never unlearn.

David A. Lee was born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and is a physician and poet whose work bridges medicine and memory. His writing has appeared or is forthcoming in In Parentheses, The Shore, and Rattle. He trained at the Mayo Clinic and lives in Texas.

BOB THURBER: A Sacred Hymn (Another Misadventure of The Broken Boys)

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

Once, during a thunderstorm, the boys huddled in an old stone church, snacking on communion wafers and slurping grape juice. Whenever a boy spoke about the storm his words were drowned out by the humming of the others. No matter which words were spoken the boys’ hearts buzzed like honeybees.

Bob Thurber is the author of six books. Regarded as a master of Flash and Micro Fiction, his work has appeared in Esquire and other magazines, been anthologized 60 times, received a long list of awards, and been utilized in schools and colleges throughout the world. He resides in Massachusetts. Visit his website at BobThurber.net.

MARLA KRAUSS: Hope Lurches

Amusing, Odd, Submissions, Top Stories, , , ,

People aren’t keen on zombies, even though they try so hard to fit in. The suburbs can be like that sometimes. The zombies grunt a greeting as they shamble into doggie day care, Starbucks, the yoga studio. They love yoga. They lurch in for Shavasana and come out with hope.

Marla Krauss is a writer who lives in Massachusetts.

BILL COX: The Web of Life

Artistic, Odd, Submissions, , ,

Lionel woke up one day and realised he was made entirely of spiders.

“We’re all part of you,” the spiders said, “and you’re the sum total of us.”

Aghast, Lionel doused himself in bug spray. The spiders died and Lionel with them, for, without community, how can an individual survive?

Bill lives in Aberdeen, Scotland. Although the city has been his home for decades, his heart lies elsewhere – beating once a century, within a small, ornately carved wooden box, bound by dark magicks, guarded by an ancient order of warrior monks, in a hidden monastery deep within the Forbidden Forest that now covers the ruins of the Lost City of Lemuria. That place.

HEATHER HAIGH: We Call it Home

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, Touching, , ,

It takes a village, beneath a granite sky, to house a church that houses a casket that houses a heart now stilled that housed our love and my future. It takes this village to house one woman with slack-skinned, age-spotted hands. Hands which wrap around mine to hold me together.

Heather is a sight-impaired spoonie and working-class writer from Yorkshire. Her work has been published by: Reflex Press, Pure Slush, New Feathers, Mono, Anansi Archives and others. She was nominated for best of the net in 2022.

MICHAEL THEROUX: It’s Organic

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

Quiet hum over sandwiches, jazz. Click of heavy plates and pots; register rings: cashew chicken, wild rice, coarse bread.

Downtown backstreet deli, mid-day mellow. Fine hide-out: out of the way, just enough. Locals all know: everyone is Home here.

Have a seat, smile, slow down. Breathe a while. It’s organic…

Michael Theroux writes from his cubby-hole home office in Northern California. He is presently shifting from decades of developing and publishing science-based socio-political works toward publication of poetry and fiction. Much more satisfying…

RAN WALKER: Men in Mourning

Submissions, Touching, , ,

Terrell didn’t bother changing out of his work shirt. Sitting down, he placed the Budweiser six-pack on the table between Grandpa and himself. Grandma had been gone a year. The beer and conversation was a poor substitute for hugs and peach cobbler, but the men did the best they could.

Ran Walker is the author of 26 books, including The Library of Afro Curiosities: 100-Word Stories. He teaches at Hampton University and lives in Virginia with his wife and daughter.

LAURA BESLEY: Silent Cries Echo

Submissions, Touching, , , , ,

On the eve of each full moon, the Elders meet.

“Betty and Jim,” the Chief says, her long earrings jangling, “are struggling. She’s too pale. He’s drinking too much. Someone needs to take them under their wing.”

I remember the pain of an empty cradle. “I’ll do it,” I say.

Laura Besley writes short fiction and squeezes her writing into the bookends of her day. She has lived in Holland, Germany, and Hong Kong, but now lives in land-locked central England and misses the sea. Her flash fiction collection, The Almost Mothers, was published in March 2020. She tweets at @laurabesley.

LISA LILLIBRIDGE: Live Generously

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Today I encountered two women on my walk. Wearing a pink, Live Generously t-shirt, an older woman didn’t look up as I said hello for the 6th day. The second woman, younger, walking two labs—one brown, one yellow—turned away when I said good morning.

I will keep trying.

Lisa Lillibridge is an artist/photographer/writer raised in South Dakota. She spends her time in Burlington, Vermont and Sandwich, Massachusetts. Her work is mostly about identity and the tricky business of finding home within oneself. See more at lisalillibridge.com.