THE BEGINNING OF THE END by Melissa Welch
Throwing my clothes into the washer, I slam the door with all the irritation I feel building up and insert the coins. The whirring lulls me into a false sense of safety and routine....
EMBRACE THE CHAOS by Patrick Palso
It was ten minutes after midnight when Iris got kidnapped. Right before she was taken out of her apartment, she heard her baby, Holly, crying from her crib.
A bag was thrown over Iris’s head...
THE THRALLS OF THE BLISTERING COLD Jensen Goudeau
There was was nothing but a frenzied swirl of snow out side of the mouth of the cavern and darkness up ahead from what Cian could tell. The air smelled of mold and rust....
DYE by Cassandra Booth
Margaret had not slept for three nights. That familiar ache behind the eyes gnawed away at her the same way a beetle gnaws a leaf. This would be the fourth sleepless night, what with...
HOW DID I BECOME THE BEGGAR by Stephanie Daich
HOW DID I BECOME THE BEGGAR
“Lady, lady, stop ignoring me.” The loud voice from the wheelchair reverberates against the walls, overriding the chatter of people walking the mall.
“If I don’t look at him, I...
FOUR HAIKUS by Jeffrey Tao
Four Haikus
Music
Music feeds the soulTouches our deepest recessesLove and cherish it.
Rippling Lake
Gently rippling lakeBathed in soft autumn sunlight.Leaves in myriad shapes.
The Starling
As I sip coffeeA starling settles nearbyPlumage speckled white.
Lilac Leaves
Green leaves turn yellowPerfectly...
DAYLIGHT SAVES by Kay Smith Blum
My head is in a story that I need to submit by today, when my husband comes into the kitchen. I can’t exit until my coffee is done even though any conversation will drain...
THE GOLDEN LEAVES OF OLD CITY by Daniel Picker
I met her just outside the brass-handled doors of Suburban Station, a good walk from 16th and Locust where I came up from below ground to the grey sidewalk on a bright, sunlit early...
JACOB AND THE ANGEL by Ingrid Blaufarb Hughes
We Are All Complicit
In Mariupol, a man searchesall night in the rubble of his house.“Four children, four adults,” he says,as day breaks. He starts to dig their graves.
On a New York street a man...
ROGUE RIVER REDEMPTION by Clint Frakes
Desire #31(a meditation on a condition)
The crazy lady tries to get intimate with meevery Wednesday & Friday. I say,“Listen, lady, you should ask before going through someone’s bag—& hey that’s my fucking magazine!”She leaves,...