Space—the final frontier for verbal obfuscation.
Onboard a starship through nepotism, George has no formal training as an astronaut.
“Is there a rec room?” he asks.
“We have a holodeck,” he’s told.
Subsequently, George spends a lot of his leisure time in the cargo hold.
The ship’s hollow deck.
John H. Dromey has had short fiction, humor, and poetry published in many different venues.
My patient asked me if he was going to die. No, I told him, you should be fine. But then again, either of us could walk out of here and get hit by a bus. Yes, he said, looking up at me very seriously. That’s what happened to my brother.
Tom Maher is a writer from London who was shortlisted for the 2025 Bridport Prize.
“Could you lower the volume? It feels too loud for only five spectators.”
My son takes out his pad and writes, “Brings me to see a Bowie documentary on a school holiday and complains about the music volume.”
I congratulate myself for having backhandedly nurtured my son’s stand-up comedy career.
Karen Sztajnberg is a Brazilian filmmaker, PhD candidate, has a thing for fried artichokes, and abhors global brand perfumes.
What William heard first from grandmother was that in every woman’s heart there exists “the one that got away.”
What he heard next from grandfather was that in every man’s head there exists “the one they should have run from sooner.”
What William later heard was a big grandparent fight.
Kent Oswald teaches at CUNY and tweets at @oswalke.
FRYING PAN RECIPE
Preheat frying pan
Add 1 tbsp of olive oil
Add sausages
Brown 3 minutes on each side
Add half cup of water, cover
Cook 6 minutes
Check for correct internal temp. of 160F
BARBECUE RECIPE
Place sausages on hot grill
When sausages resemble charcoal
remove and serve.
Gene Newman is a retired old guy (90 yrs) and former New Jersey journalist and columnist. Read more at GeneNewmanImagineThat.com.
She had attempted to ignore him, hoping he wouldn’t approach her as she stood alone in the aisle of the bookstore. He was the persistent kind, though.
After approaching her, he mustered a polite smile and blinked twice.
“Excuse me,” she said by way of introduction, gently fanning behind herself.
Ran Walker is the author of seventeen books, the most recent of which is PORTABLE BLACK MAGIC: TALES OF THE AFRO STRANGE. He teaches creative writing at Hampton University.
Ken believed our scoutmaster when he said adding dry leaves would give the stew a nice “hickory” flavor.
We couldn’t stop Ken in time to keep all of the leaves out, but when we won first prize for “Best Camporee Meal,” no one mentioned the secret ingredient to the judges.
Ran Walker remains perpetually amazed by what you can do with fifty words.
He’d taken this route every year. Nothing like this ever happened before. Guy came out of nowhere.
The reindeer were fatter this year so they blocked his view.
Opening his hip flask, he studied the splatter on the road.
Nobody believed in him anyway. Better go before witnesses turn up.
Joey does not and never did believe in the existence of Santa.
After the strange cow—on our land that night, yet unbranded—nipped Pete, we watched him close for a month, and, this proving wise, every full moon thereafter, until Ma, Mellie, and I returned from vacation to find Pa’s dementia had deepened, and over a mouthful of burger, Mellie asked, “Where’s Pete?”
Graham Robert Scott teaches writing at a university in north Texas. His stories have appeared in Barrelhouse Online, Nature, and Blink-Ink. See more at hemicyon.wordpress.com.
Covered in powdered sugar and melted chocolate, my beautiful blond roommate, who had never before set foot in our kitchen, looked up from her painstakingly crafted graham cracker crust in horror.
“Oh my God,” she said. “I just remembered. His mom’s a diabetic.”
I laughed. She managed not to cry.
Taylor Boucher is a writer of creative nonfiction and occasional fiction, when she realizes her exaggeration has gotten out of control. Her claims to fame are surviving being hit by a bus and meeting JoJo in a restaurant bathroom in 2007. In her spare time, she enjoys long conversations with her deaf dog.