My notepad is full of poems about love, back from a time I didn’t know much about it (though I thought I did), but love must be learned by living through its highs and lows, my notepad growing as I grew to find myself this grown man writing about love.
Ran Walker is the author of over 40 books, most of them microfiction. He teaches creative writing and lives in Virginia with his wife and daughter.
It was always our thing — searching for familiar shapes in the inky black. Even in Dad’s hospital room, his tired eyes watching and monitors softly beeping, I found Polaris through the telescope. Something to guide me.
Now, in the silence, all I can see is the dark between the stars.
Stephanie Hurley is a writer and English teacher based in Manawatū, New Zealand. She is passionate about all things creative; in particular, using writing to examine the world around her. Her work has been published in Tarot and Mote.
Walking down the narrow hall, I saw moving boxes stacked outside another tenant’s open door.
“Need some help?” I asked, picking one up.
“Oh, thanks,” a woman said.
I nodded toward the half-empty apartment, then the stairs. “Are you coming or going?”
She hesitated. Massaged her hands. “I’m not sure.”
Alex R. Roman’s writing has also appeared in Flash Fiction Magazine. He doesn’t use social media.
If I could do it again, I’d worry less about the package and more about the contents; less about the calories, and more about nutrition; less about the cost, and more about the value; less about being liked, and more about being likeable; less about wanting, and more about thanking.
A prolific writer, Carol Reeves is loving the fun, freedom and challenge of Flash Fiction. Her stories frequently reflect on the blessings and vicissitudes of aging—and can be found in Flash Fiction Magazine and 50 Word Stories. Carol’s memoir, “All the Little Miracles,” was published in 2022.
You helped me shake poppy seeds out of their brittle pods. You rode the pumpkin. You kept your arms outstretched long after the hula hoop settled to the ground. You looked up at the stars, in your ultrasound, and saw all of the things in the universe that needed rearranging.
JK Miller is a poet and storyteller living on the edge of cornfields.
“Looks like an alien,” my son said of the horseshoe-crab shell: translucent, fragile, dwarfed by his palm.
“You’re not wrong. They evolved in a world different from ours.”
“Shouldn’t we clean it up?” he wondered of the carapace-littered beach.
“Let the waves take care of everything. How about ice cream?”
Tim Boiteau is a Writers of the Future winner and Editor at Every Day fiction. He is the author of the novel The Nilwere (Grendel Press, 2024).
Last December our oldest daughter stormed in from her shift at the family market.
The tips were horrible, she stomped, unraveling her scarf.
Here’s a tip for you, her father said from the living room, withered and tied down by the oxygen tube in his nose. Don’t eat yellow snow.
Raised in Ohio, Rachel Hapanowicz has fared her fair share of December snowstorms. She currently teaches in Cincinnati.
I met an angry man today. “I’ve had it up to here with you!” he said. “Take your pills!”
I met a sad man today. “Please try to remember,” he said. “Please.”
I met a friendly man today. “I’m sorry, Dad,” he said. “I love you. The memories don’t matter.”
Nico Calvanico is a native New Yorker and a student at The New School. After studying performing arts for his entire life, he has decided to pursue something far more lucrative: creative writing.
“You came to the world without a shirt on your back, and you’re going to depart this life the same way,” he’d tell anybody willing to listen. “If you have clothes and food, be content.”
A truly spiritual man. (He also owned a supermarket, two restaurants and a department store.)
J.S. O’Keefe is a scientist, trilingual translator and writer whose short stories and prosimetra have been published in several print and online magazines.
My nephew takes me on a walk around the property that holds his condominium. Across the street chainsaws hum as palm trees fall to make room for a new high rise. But in this tiny little nook, between a cement staircase and a parking garage, we spot Eurekas dripping lemon.
Sue Ann Gleason is a writer, educator, and nourishment guide who loves freshly sharpened pencils and pages that turn. See more at wellnourishedwoman.com and sueanngleason.substack.com and on Instagram.