Tag Archives: coping

HARLEY VITALE: Things I know

Submissions, Touching, , , ,

I know how to tie my shoes, I know how to eat without getting dirty, I know that the sun rises and sets every day, I know how to love deeply, I know that as a child I was abandoned and that I had to learn these things all alone.

Harley is a young girl who loves reading and writing. In fact, her biggest ambition is to become a writer and publish her own novels. She writes short stories and poems in her blog and she won two literary prizes last year. See more at soloraccontidifantasia.blogspot.com.

BRIAN MAYCOCK: Lonely

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

Between the commuter train and the office, the lunch break and working late.

Between the park and the bookshop, where I delay going home, to the apartment where I don’t want to be.

Before the morning alarm begins another day.

I never really stop.

Anything to not think, not feel.

Brian Maycock’s short stories have recently appeared in The Drabble, Flash Fiction Magazine and Paragraph Planet. He lives in Scotland.

CHERYL SOMERS AUBIN: Grocery Shopping

Submissions, Top Stories, Touching, , ,

The son, his tie loosened after a long day, stands next to his dad who wears mismatched clothes. The dad looks at the grocery store shelves, then at his son.

“Dad, this is one mom used.”

The dad pauses, reaches for the can of soup, puts it in the basket.

Cheryl Somers Aubin has an MA/Writing from Johns Hopkins University. She is the former nonfiction editor for the Literary Journal Delmarva Review. Cheryl teaches memoir writing and is a featured speaker at writing conferences and workshops. She is the author of The Survivor Tree: Inspired by a True Story, which is available at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum and online.

LAURA DOBSON: Dot to Dot

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , , ,

He leaves you both behind with the unanswered question of why. For some incommunicable reason, you conclude that your primary purpose now is to solve it. You pore over the plotted points of your shared timeline, charcoal pupils darting between them: frantic, determined, and leaving behind a spider’s laboured trail.

Laura works as a secondary school pastoral assistant and relishes sharing the therapeutic potential of the arts with young people. She writes to navigate life’s more painful moments and, although she has attended a writers’ group for over a year, has yet to find the courage to share her own work.

MARY ROHRER-DANN: Blessing

Artistic, Submissions, Touching, , ,

When he cannot sleep, he counts the cats chasing invisible grasshoppers across the ceiling. Some nights, one might pause, beryl eyes luminous, and leap down onto his bed. Tonight, a fine-boned grey, soft and silent as fog, lands lightly, curls against his hip. As Emily had for so many years.

Mary Rohrer-Dann writes narrative poetry and flash fiction and publishes in a variety of venues.

JOHN YOUNG: The Beer Truck

Amusing, Submissions, Touching, , , , ,

On the way to the crematorium a large beer truck inserts itself between the hearse and the cortege, then, despite signals to overtake, tenaciously holds its position. In the moments of sad gladness, down the line of following cars, the laughter ripples. “Harry would have appreciated that,” they all agree.

John Young is an old chap grappling with themes of limits and longings. He lives in St Andrews Scotland.

SARAH BERLETTI: She Liked to Read Dickinson

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

I figure if I paint the walls clean enough and the color is neutral enough my landlord won’t mind. If he won’t let me out of my lease I need to change the four walls somehow. Her blush is still staining the wall she used to lean on while reading.

Sarah is a student at The New School where she is exercising her writing craft and preparing for a career in the field. She is constantly being inspired and reinspired by her life in New York City, and her protagonist origin story that brought her there.

MARIA: Despite

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

Despite
rough sea stone
and the smell of salt,
deep
deep
breaths,
sips of water,
forced smiles,
looking pointedly elsewhere,
globes of brilliant glass
flowing from palm to palm,
folded fingers
twining fingers
hard fisted fingers,
stretch and twist and bruise;
despite all these dodges
distractions, defenses–
I still cried.

Maria particularly dislikes when her regular coping mechanisms fail, and leave her floundering. She’s having a much better day now.

RAN WALKER: Euphonic Cacophony

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

The jazz trio played louder to cover the screams of the people in the streets. The doors were locked and chained. They’d be safe inside for a while. And rather than fear the inevitable, they chose to continue playing the best set of their lives, making the screams their melody.

Ran Walker is the author of 23 books, including the upcoming book Keep It 100: 100-Word Stories. He teaches creative writing at Hampton University in Virginia.

AVERY MATHERS: 2 A.M.

Artistic, Submissions, ,

I burn the bitter words to fine ash in the waste bin, add a swirl of water, and flush away the slurry. Alone in bed, I stare at the ceiling. It may be hours before I find sleep, or sleep finds me. We have a habit of missing one another.

Avery Mathers writes in the Scottish Highlands. His flash fiction and short stories have appeared in Flash Fiction Magazine, Every Day Fiction, 101-Words, 50 Give or Take, Triclops, and others.