Tag Archives: relationships

THAD DeVASSIE: Things Left Unsaid

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

They have been painstakingly cataloged, each with date stamps remembered vividly, ready to roll up on your shores like muscle memory, like grudge-holding tides that never forget. When you’re willing to let it go—all of it—to make amends, to say your goodbyes, let it not be too late.

Thad DeVassie is a lifelong Ohioan who writes and paints from the outskirts of Columbus. His recent work has appeared in Unbroken, Spelk, Lunate, and Ghost City Review, among others. He is a winner of the 2020 James Tate International Poetry Prize for his manuscript SPLENDID IRRATIONALITIES. His chapbook, THIS SIDE OF UTOPIA, will arrive in 2021 from Cervena Barva Press. Find more of his work @thaddevassie.

RAN WALKER: Drowning

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , ,

I warn her not to over-water the plant in the window, but she insists that more water is needed to reach the roots. This is just like her: to do a little too much, to love a little too hard. Just like that plant, one day I, too, will drown.

Ran Walker is the author of 22 books, including the 50-word story collection THE STRANGE MUSEUM. He teaches creative writing at Hampton University in Virginia.

REBECCA RUVINSKY: Missed Connection

Amusing, Submissions, Touching, , ,

When her heel snapped, she literally fell into his arms.

Embarrassed laughter, quick smiles, then hasty apologies – she was late. Now hobbled, she’d be even later. Impulse seized him; he called her a taxi, paid for it as she zipped away.

He picked up the broken heel, thinking of Cinderella.

Rebecca Ruvinsky is a student, poet, and emerging writer in Orlando, Florida. She has kept a streak of writing a poem every day since 2016, with her poetry being featured on Poetry on the Move. She loves baking cookies, watching rocket launches, and listening to music too loud. She can be found at @writeruvinsky.

MARILYN McFARLANE: The Choice

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

She was torn between two lovers.

One gave her a pink silk negligee and said if she wore it every night, he’d know she was his.

The other gave her his softest old shirt and said if she wore it she’d know he was hers.

She chose the right one.

Marilyn McFarlane is a travel writer and the author of Sacred Stories: Wisdom From World Religions. She also writes poetry, memoir and fiction. She lives in Oregon, where there is a lot of scope for the imagination.

ESZTER MOLNAR: Again

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

I hurried to the restaurant, my heart full of hope.

Will she smile at me today? I wondered. Ask me how my day was? Comment on my haircut?

She was sitting in the corner, reading. She didn’t look at me.

“You’re late,” she said as she turned a page. “Again.”

Eszter Molnar is a former teacher who lives by the windswept British seaside with her partner and two children. She has been published in one of the UK’s biggest subscription magazines for children. By day, she cleans up after preschoolers, by night she writes picture books and Middle Grade fiction.

RAN WALKER: Beaufort

Poetry, Submissions, Touching, , ,

They had the kind of love
that camped out in cotton shirts
Damp with perspiration from
Morning gardening
Afternoon lovemaking
Evenings with her back pressed against his chest
As they looked into an endless sky
And pondered how the love they shared
Felt bigger than the entire universe before them

Ran Walker is the author of 21 books, including the 50-Word story collection THE STRANGE MUSEUM. He teaches creative writing at Hampton University in Virginia.

JOEY TO: A Recipe

Artistic, Submissions, Touching, , ,
  1. Preheat your heart to 37 degrees C.

  2. Open your eyes and ears.

  3. Don’t make selections based merely on appearance.

  4. Mix, knead and prove. It may take years.

  5. If friendship does not rise, mix in more dough or start again.

May require variations depending on ingredients.

Joey believes there is at least one recipe for everything but many are not easy, especially if it’s important. But at least getting to his website, joeytoey.com, isn’t hard.

MANDIRA PATTNAIK: Mary’s Little Lamb

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Monday morning: I know she’s wrong.

Tuesday: I think she’s wrong.

Wednesday: I ask my workmate, “She’s wrong, no?”

Thursday: I cook pan-roasted salmon, wait for her.

Friday: “Are you still angry, Baby?”

Saturday: “Sorry. I knew I was wrong.”

Sunday: We drive to the beach, curl up under stars.

Mandira Pattnaik is an Economics graduate who lets her degree gather dust while she word-weaves. Some of those pieces have made their way into Spelk, Lunate, Gasher, Star82, and fiftywordstories. She tweets @MandiraPattnaik.

LAURA BESLEY: Shapes of Loneliness

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Paying for company isn’t new to Alfred.

His father shoehorned him into a high position in the family business, and Alfred was keen to splash his cash about town. He dated, he married, he dated some more.

These days company is in the form of a television, programs carefully chosen.

Laura Besley writes short fiction in the precious moments that her children are asleep. Her fiction has appeared online, as well as in print and in various anthologies. Her flash fiction collection, The Almost Mothers, was published in March 2020. She tweets at @laurabesley.

CELINE LOW: Woman by the Window

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, , , ,

He knelt, burying
his face in her waist,
the knowledge
of how many times he’d die
for her

choking
so he
could only say

you have no idea.

Held fast, she
(looking out the misted glass
at the crabapple trees with their pink heads
thinning)
echoed

you have no idea.

Celine Low lives in Singapore, a tiny country in Southeast Asia with a hodgepodge of cultures. She holds an MA in English Literature and loves to dance and take long walks. Her works have appeared in Blood Moon Rising Magazine and 9Tales From Elsewhere.