The sea delivers soft-edged bits of glass and storm-tossed shells. On a high tide, it brought my sister, soft-edged and storm-tossed with hair like fire. We railed against the waves when they stole her back. Even now, my eyes comb the greedy sea for the gleam of her iridescent tail. Jenny Mattern is a poet, […]
I want to climb behind his eyes. To crawl on my belly over enemy lines and see the shelling for myself.Noetic civil war—red rain of spitfire sky; ground assaults below.What chance does love have in his wartime mind? Wait. It’s…a flag unfurling, bleached, bloody. He surrenders. Gabe has been writing and editing for 30 years, […]
When attendance at his fire-and-brimstone sermons drops to zero, a flawed preacher turns to ChatGPT to help him amplify his prayers. Image generated with OpenAI Fake news pretended that the COVID pandemic had caused the death of the Church, but Pastor Carl knew the truth – much more dire – that the death of the […]
The Story of the Month is chosen from the Story of the Week winners announced from the past month. The finalists for April were: Cincinn by Piper PughMoonshine by Deborah TapperWhat We Left Behind by Mari KitinaDishwasher by Alexa Yasmin Ferrer The winner of the April 2025 Story of the Month, and the $10 prize, […]
She was dying for so long, I learned to live with it. Then she died—and I forgothow to feel. She faded long before she was actually gone. It lasted forever, then ended in a second. I still don’t know if I’m grieving or simply remembering how to live. Kristina Warlen is a literary and speculative […]
a big old plantation houseor a drafty shack over the bayouyour home before you set outvisit every corner to beholdwhat all not to misswhat all to forget it’s your home you’re leaving behindnever to return don’t wave good-byedon’t talk to anyoneglide away J.S. O’Keefe has published over three hundred short stories and poems in print […]
I gazed longingly at the mahogany shelves, fingers itching. He’d left the key in the glass door. As soon as his back was turned, I made my move. Ignoring the silver trophies on display, I slipped ‘Pride and Prejudice’ inside. It was only one book but it was a start. Suzan Lindsay Randle writes flash […]
Fila stared at the map, tracing the 800 miles that lay ahead. Mules hitched, wagon loaded, farm sold. Nothing of home, of him, remained, save the shotgun he’d carried to the barn that day. She’d keep the shotgun as a reminder when memories of love and life wanted back in. Susan Hunt is a retired […]
A student said she wanted “a next egg”. Next egg. Expresso. Arlene had sacrificed oceans of cappuccinos to build her now-crushed 401(k). Now what? “Why do we call it ‘nest egg’? What thoughts and feelings go with those words?” Arlene asked and, like Patience on a monument, waited for answers. Miriam N. Kotzin writes fiction […]
It takes sixty-three days to whelp a puppy. Do that every few months and you’ve got yourself a pack. I’d be the leader, of course, padding after them, teaching them to say I love you. If you were here I’d show you. If you were here, though, I wouldn’t need to. Cheryl Snell writes as […]
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution
