Short Fiction and Poetry

After seven days of intolerable confinement, Izzy decided that this foggy afternoon was the right time to free herself. [...]

It was a fitting name, Rolling Vistas, situated on the edge of a picturesque town near the sprawling Shawnee National Forest. [...]

I am in the doctor’s examining room asking for the impossible. I tell him I have a sickness, a duplicate disease [...]

An alligator-sighting in the woods causes a stir on campus. Some say they’ve seen it basking in the sun outside Dean Lontmeiser’s office[..]

He clumsily stumbled into a tree, catching himself before collapsing into a forest of dreams. His mind was in a haze [...]

Dressed in a tattered green cagoule and oversized yellow boots, Mister Whistler cut a peculiar figure. [...]

Bennie turned from Kai to hide her glee. Her pulse quickened. She stayed silent and awaited the push, the pressure.  [...]

“I like the touch of the cool sheets when we get into bed,” the man had said on the first of many nights. The city lights were shining [...]

When I lived with my parents, our house was next to a cemetery. My father claimed it was cheaper to live near the dead than the living [...]

“Samuel Brown. You killed me.” Samuel Brown woke up from a dead sleep and banged his head on the overturned rowboat [...]

The parking lot princess sits on her bench perched in the middle of the parking lot, with large suitcases bookending the bench. [...]

My roommate, Abioye Ogundipe, was both an idealist and stubborn. Those qualities could be viewed as admirable. [...]

He does not understand why the white heron, that dream-like thing, is there wherever he walks in the canyon [...]

I have my grandfather’s ruby ring. It is wrapped in a tiny manilla envelope, tucked in the bottom drawer of my nightstand. [...]

That space on the wall had been empty long enough. The space was to be filled with the King of Beasts [...]

Harlan felt panicked that far down the dark alley. Something scurried between his feet. His shoes stuck in God knew what. [...]

I cannot tell you how long I have been in this room, long enough to commit all detail to memory. Useless knowledge [...]

The stale air of the undercity hung heavy, clinging to Kai like a second skin. The incessant hum of the neon signs above, bleeding [...]

Her face was arresting; it made you feel instantly sorry for her husband. It was not a face that would likely launch a thousand ships [...]

I see you on your evening walk past the diner on Ravenswood. From my perch in the empty planter, I watch as you pause [...]