Tag Archives: relationships

RAN WALKER: Killing Me Softly

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

He hated living in her songs. Each lyric cut too deep, making his life a chorus for strangers.

She called it love.

And then, as if the weight finally reached her hands, the guitar slipped out of tune.

Complete silence.

Perhaps she finally understood love wasn’t meant to be performed.

Ran Walker is the author of over 40 books, the most recent of which is Fragments of the Afroverse, releasing on October 1st. He teaches creative writing at Hampton University and lives with his wife and daughter in Virginia.

ZENITH KNOX: Fist

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

I counted on my fingers every time my best friend failed me after becoming popular.

One—she called me a loser, behind my back.

Two—she copied my homework.

Three—she winked at my crush.

I stopped after four and five. By then, my hand had balled into a fist.

Zenith Knox is a Korean-American writer from the DC metropolitan area. Her stories are published at BULL, The Citron Review, Literally Stories, and elsewhere. Visit her at ZenithKnox.wordpress.com.

NEIL FOSTER: Gary and Jean

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

“What have you done?” said Jean, looking straight ahead, Gary in the passenger seat.

Parked at the kerb, they both watched as a young couple entered their home of thirty years, closing the door firmly behind them. Red car in the driveway. Gates locked.

Gary began to smile, eyes glittering.

Neil Foster is a composer, music therapist and budding writer from Northern Ireland. His music has been featured widely across local and international media, including BBC Radio and TV, and he writes fiction, non fiction and poetry.

KRISTINA WARLEN: A Theology of Crumbs

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

He plays slow hymns no one taught him. Leaves crumbs in the sheets, salt on my thighs. “I wish I still believed,” he says. I don’t answer. He kisses like prayer. I trace his spine like scripture. He kneels. I don’t. Still, I stay. The body has its own liturgy.

Kristina Warlen writes literary and speculative work that explores memory, grief, intimacy, and emotional fracture. Her poetry and short fiction appear in TWLOHA Blog, Five Fleas (Itchy Poetry), Corporeal Lit Mag, The Daily Drunk, and Switch Magazine, with recent and forthcoming work in Right Hand Pointing, Flash Fiction Magazine, and Eunoia Review.

RAN WALKER: Writing About Love

Artistic, Submissions, , , , , ,

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.

YASH SEYEDBAGHERI: Things to Clean/Purge

Artistic, Submissions, , ,
  1. Stacks of T-shirts, sweatpants, underwear, yellowed sheets, and loads of Kleenex.

  2. Bottles of Merlot. The steaks Anastasia bought; we planned to cook them for a special dinner.

  3. Anastasia’s lavender blouses, Capris, and sweatpants.

  4. Every invective that rises as I pack her goods into crumbling cardboard boxes.

Yash Seyedbagheri is a graduate of Colorado State University’s MFA fiction program. His work has been published in SmokeLong Quarterly, The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, and Ariel Chart, among others.

THOMAS MALLOCH: The Photograph

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

You have to wonder what was said before she clicked. The toddler, the man, their stances non-contiguous. The first projecting suspicion, the other hostility, to the she who is absent from the scene, the she behind the camera.

The mood of a moment caught for eternity in black and blacker.

Once upon a time, Thomas Malloch thought to try his hand at writing, only to find that writing seemed mostly editing, and then that editing seemed mostly to involve taking an axe to the word count. Consequently his output and remuneration are both low. Good job he already has a pension.

MIRIAM N KOTZIN: Seashore Relics

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

Hole in the left upper, insoles shot, cushioning gone. When I wear them, I find sand between my toes—I haven’t been to Wildwood for fifteen years.

Holding hands, we’d strolled the boardwalk, ferris-wheeled, carrouselled, roller-coastered, oceaned, and beached.

I dangle the sneakers by their laces. They’ve seen better days.

Miriam N. Kotzin writes fiction and poetry. She is the author of five collections of poetry, two collections of short fiction, and two novels—most recently the novel Right This Way (Spuyten Duyvil). Her 50-word stories have been published in 50-Word Stories, 50 Give or Take, and Blink Ink. She teaches literature and creative writing at Drexel University

AJ JOSEPH: The Taste of Forgetting

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , , , ,

Lila served Gerald the same iced latte in 1892, 2025, and 3041. He never remembered. She always did. “Happenstance,” he said, smiling at the déjà vu. She stirred in grief, knowing he’d forget again before the foam settled. Time bent for him; for her, it only bruised, and always lingered.

AJ Joseph is trying to tame her overgrown garden so that her cats don’t get lost in the weeds.

JOANNA ALEXANDRA NORLAND: Sticks and Stones

Artistic, Submissions, Touching, , , , ,

She seized a stick and scrawled “I love you” in the sand.
He chose a boulder and sharpened his chisel.
All afternoon, he scored, hammered and chipped.
He called to her at last to present his reply.
By then, she had skipped away and the tide had erased her words.

Joanna Alexandra Norland’s plays, including Lizzy, Darcy and Jane, and Mothers Have Nine Lives, have been produced on four continents.