Pink Polka Dots – Ashley Reynolds
If my mother had her way, she would have worn a ragged t-shirt and no pants every day. She would come home every night and take off her work clothes before she even said hello to us. As a result, most...
View ArticleI Still Love You From the Other Side of This Bottle of Whiskey by Andrew...
Hello Darling, The water sways with the rhythm I’ve seen in the hips of women. Though there is a chance that I am just profoundly drunk as the room is also spinning, counter-clockwise, against my...
View ArticleScreening by Madeleine Leznoff
The stars slowly suck the last evidence of daylight out of the apartment and still he sits in his chair. Another episode airs and he bores his vision into the center of the screen where the color is...
View ArticleOregon by Jackson Ellis
My wife stood by my side in slowly flowing thigh-deep water as I taught her how to cast a fishing rod. She watched as I demonstrated proper technique, arcing the line into the brilliant sky. A hundred...
View ArticleAngels Flight by Chad Greene
“This isn’t working,” I admitted. “Not anymore.” Annie and I stood next to the gate at the bottom of what the dog-eared guidebook we had purchased when we decided to move to Southern California assured...
View ArticleKatrina by Angele Anderfuren
Katrina always wondered what her world would be like, if only she had been born a month later, if only she wasn’t premature, if only her birthday was September 12, 2005 instead of August 4th. If she...
View ArticleThe Mermaid’s Son by Ken Poyner
As with most things, I thought nothing of it until it got in the way. By then, I had already learned to move it about, flip it up when it began to inconveniently drag, smooth it back when I needed a...
View ArticleTKO by Ken Schweda
Unlike the first eleven presidential debates, this one, the last before the election, was particularly unexciting. Like evenly matched prize fighters hoping to win on points alone, the candidates...
View ArticleFreedom Riders by Mark Antony Rossi
Right after a few blue tabs the city seems cleaner and safer. The “poor-man’s scotch” I hear they call it. Aquamarine activators scrubbing the senses of grit and grime. The peace that flows like...
View ArticleIrv was Taking Cooking Lessons by John Flynn
Irv was taking cooking lessons, and that irritated his wife. She couldn’t cook, didn’t want to cook, and barely could eat. When Sunday night rolled around and Irv decided to cook a French dish with...
View ArticlePrayer for the Small Goat with Deformed Horns by Gwendolyn Edward
Your life is sad, a metronome of monotony and loneliness. You are confined to the perimeter of a barn. Your horns are twisted, grown into and around each other into the semblance of some malformed...
View ArticleBar Iwo Jima by Carles D. Tarlton
Hey, come on in. What do you think of the place? I inherited it from my father. Take a look. It’s like a war museum. My father was 88 when he died and he owned this bar since 1950, named it Bar...
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View ArticlePEACOCKS by Toti O’Brien
I’ll never get used to peacocks roaming around as if they were chicken or stray cats. I just can’t believe such fabulous creatures (second only to what? phoenix, unicorn, bird of paradise?) would...
View ArticlePhilosophy of Rent by Mark Antony Rossi
We’ve lost our magic. Our instinct for mystery. Most bold questions have pat answers. Whatever’s left—few manage to pay attention. How I long for a day when the classics are read aloud from atop a...
View ArticleHow It Crumbles by Charles Tarlton
This is a sad story. Rodney Hollister was a really talented guy, but he had a weakness. He could never do anything the regular way. Give him a task, and he’d spend more time figuring out an angle...
View ArticleMother Dearest by D. Seth Horton
A flight attendant welcomes Diane aboard and helps her find the right seat. She’s going to visit her only child, who has finally agreed to see her for the first time in years. Ray will be in San...
View ArticleThe Hoarder by Michael Neal Morris
The woman from social services pointed to a four-foot stack of New Yorker magazines and asked, “What about these?” “What about them?” the old man asked, his throat tightening. “Do you need those?” “I...
View ArticleBummed by Bertram Allan Mullin
Dan’s dad told him not to give anything to the homeless. “They only want your money, son. Trust me.” The boy didn’t understand this, nor would he listen. While on the bus ride to school, he saw a...
View ArticleThe Five-Minute Marriage by Gregory Janetka
Damn television sets. Three blaring away and the sun still down. Noxious distractions – news that’s not news, fear mongering masquerading as news, and the third with adverts for pills for conditions...
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