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MESSINESS by Jahnavi Misra
MESSINESSby Jahnavi Misra “Does this spark joy?” Nita kept asking herself.She went around the room, tripping on random items, picking up one thing after another – a figurine, a coaster, a vinyl – and repeating...
HORSEBACK by Eric D. Goodman
HORSEBACKby Eric D. Goodman
Dustin prepared the horses for another day of riding. The sun had barely risen, but he’d already put in a few hours. Earlier, he’d made breakfast—eaten three eggs, bacon, toast, and...
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THE BROKEN CONCERT by Mark Massaro
THE BROKEN CONCERTby Mark Massaro
Felix digs through his cramped, dank storage unit, pushing aside shoeboxes of photographs and rolled up concert posters, trying to find his cooler and camping chairs. Florida humidity soaks the...
GRETA by Susanne Roff
GRETABy Susanne Roff
I met Greta in prison. She’d got five years and was two thirds of her way through them. We met on the industrial cleaning course of all things – that was about...
BETWEEN THE AISLES by Jessamyn Violet
BETWEEN THE AISLESby Jessamyn Violet
Fixation: An obsessive preoccupation.Sometimes, the only thing I can do to keep my mind off of him is to go shopping—mainly for cheap, useless items that make me more aware...
THE PRICE OF KINDNESS by Robert Penick
THE PRICE OF KINDNESSby Robert Penick
I was born in Mississippi, which is a big Strike One right off the bat, but I was also born poor, to people who didn’t need to be poor,...
LINEMAN’S HUT NO. 13 by Magdalena Blazevic
LINEMAN’S HUT NO. 13by Magdalena Blazevic The shadow is alive and Sofija knows she cannot run from it. The room's walls cannot soak it in, nor can the dark swallow it up. She pulls the...
OBSCURA by Ian Swalwell
OBSCURAby Ian Swalwell
It was too early for the cacophony, too early for the anxiety, too early for the shame, but it was there anyway. It wasn’t late enough to grab someone by the shirt...
PAID HOLIDAY by Tina Zenou
PAID HOLIDAYby Tina Zenou
The green hills come rolling up towards us. Neat hedges of brambles divide them. In the distance the glitter of the ocean.I look at all the beauty and I want to...
SPRING-HEELED JACK by Ernesto Ignacio Gomez Belloso
SPRING-HEELED JACKby Ernesto Ignacio Gomez Belloso
Gottfried and Freischütz were not artsy. They didn’t know the complexities of painting, nor did they ever bother to look into them. But they could see the beauty in...