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Short Fiction and Poetry


The Spice I Did Not Like Was Chives by Leslie Cairns
I finally figured out the spice I did not
Like, when I was a kid, and grandpa
Would hand me spaghetti [...]


Street Corners by Joan McNerney
Enveloped in exhaust fumes
slate-like formations
wait for light to change
her carbon dress
his face of ashes [...]


Fields Burn by Ann Privateer
I’m writing with charcoal
in a field on fire
because fields burn
to burn [...]


Survival of an Empath by Louise Worthington
The voices around her shout their woes.
Her whole house
Quivers
The walls begin to shake
Melancholy breeze pries its fingertips [...]


A House Divided by Kathleen Chamberlin
The war within me rages still:
An endless ebb and flow, high tides and low
A riptide of dangerous, clashing emotions [...]


4 Haiku by Jerome Berglund
jupiter's digestive tract:
small solar system
and one kuiper object [...]


Autobiography by Candice Kelsey
I used to know who I was. Today I’m just another adult. There are a lot of us. Adulthood makes for an easy scapegoat [...]


Watchful Beasts by Paul Goudarzi-Fry
Far below us, I can see the barrel cactuses on the side of the plateau,
and he drags me back wordlessly by the neck away from the edge [...]


Sentiment In Santa Cruz by Katey Taylor
cotton candy and carnival rides, stretched across the boardwalk tides [...]


The Third Person; Transfarency by Charles Rammelkamp
While at the day care lady’s
picking up my daughter after work,
one of the moms, Kathy,
is telling us about an accident [...]


Bitter Truths; Over-Simplification; Fatalism by Samantha Terrell
We sketch our realities with great
Care, filling in details that are perpetually
Smudged out [...]


Or Is The 'Great War Poem' Played Out; Transient Global Amnesia by K.R. Wilson
On the map, now,
if you can find it,
south of Ypres,
it’s Sint-Elooi [...]


Granata by Kristy Bowen
The maidens all line up, row by row. Sew their mouths into smiles and
while away the afternoons near the riverbed [...]


(For Salman Rushdie) by David R. Mellor
There are no words
Because words can lead to death [...]


Prophecy; Defiance by Petar Penda
A prophecy says the sea will drown clouds
Disarm them of thunder and lightning,
Of heavy rains, hail and snow [...]


9.81; Closing In On My Aloofness; Morals Murky As A Duck Pond by Richard LeDue
Gravity pulls on a feather as much
as a bowling ball, but other things
get in the way, slowing a feathery descent [...]


How this love is a gun by Clara Burghelea
We jinxed ourselves to the marrow of the night,
never to catch a wink of sleep, I am no fisherman,
you whisper [...]


Dad Jokes; Oenophilia by K.R. Wilson
consider the dad joke:
a corny response to a
trivial ambiguity
(hi hungry, i’m dad ) [...]


You Needn't Search Alone; Homesick Wanderlust by Lawrence Moore
Long after darkness first strolled out to play,
we cut the torches, possibly to sleep,
convinced all other lights were slunk away [...]


How To Defeat Demons; How Long; Please Note by Jacqueline Jules
You can’t see them, but you know
they are there, waiting, whispering.
They surround you when you sleep [...]
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