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Short Fiction and Poetry


Orlando Sky; You Are The Sun; Shadows Near Dawn by Brian Michael Barbeito
can I find where I used to be, again,
where I partly grew up and carried my books and clip board and pens in my blue knapsack? [...]


pseudo-winter by Özge Lena
it was the middle of winter
but that word didn’t mean
anything anymore
apart from a grey
amnesia of cold [...]

When he got mad; One of three by Azaria Camargo
When he got mad
Suddenly and completely
We are worthless [...]


Black Water by Jarrett Mazza
THERE WAS SUNLIGHT AND THERE WERE TREES.
There was a lake and then there was she.
Swimming, the water- so warm and so black [...]


Summer Is Dying; Bowl of Black Petunias by Michael Lee Johnson
Outside, summer is dying into fall,
and blue daddy petunias sprout ears—
hear the beginning of night chills. [...]


Effigies; Allowed To Follow by Michael Igoe
If they're posed as reverent,
the strong lack any
strength.
But in the final days
they're the same as ever. [...]


She Gave Up The Colorful World; June 1st by Yuu Ikeda
Emotionless breeze blows.
Bloodless skin feels it.
But frozen lips never move. [...]


Lost Thoughts by Kenneth Vincent Walker
When I think about all
The strange ideas that
I hadn’t shared—that
Evaporated in thin air; [...]


Shining Bitter Smiles; Burning Out A Fuse Up Here Alone by Paul Edward Costa
You know,
I take data from what I’m told
plus what I see,
plug it in
and the equation
keeps spitting out incoherent [...]


Seduction; Choose A Career by Bruce McRae
Instead of writing, learn to read palms
or spin plates or swallow fire.
Become a casting director. Join a sailing crew. [...]


Reality by Kerstan Batchelor
Reality may be a poetic fusion of illusions and daydreams, yet it feels the same as bittersweet betrayals [...]


Shortlist Saturdays: Playing Dress-Up by Katie Cossette
When my grandmother passed, I inherited her wardrobe.
At any moment, I can be transported
through time and space. [...]


James Bond and the Demimonde by Elliot Wilner
After a yearlong, tedious hiatus
Cruelly wreaked on all of us
By a novel, evil coronavirus,
Our hardy group of men
The same six elders [...]


Sleeping Beauty, again for Anne Sexton by Alan Bern
Now after fifty years my once professoressa
I am still afraid to write this
You were my sad mother too [...]


Shortlist Saturdays: My Name Is by Marion Lougheed
When I was eleven I wrote my name on notebook pages,
tested other lineages on my tongue [...]


My Authentic Self by Laura Stamps
“Dear Elaine,” she writes. “Should have been a nun. Should have. Would have been a good one too. [...]


The Riddle of Shakespeare; Those Dark Halls of Ambiguity by Ian C. Smith
At their second world convention
those Shakespearean scholars
fight for seats in Washington’s Hilton
just for the privilege of hearing [...]


Shortlist Saturdays: Easter 2023 by Richard-Yves Sitoski
Fall let go of leaves like a drunk his inhibitions
and winter proved that cold is lack of heat.
And now it’s time for buds. Erupt! [...]


We All Die Young by Paden Smith
We all die young,
For the decrepit existence
is no longer living.
Blue-hot vigor cruelly fleeting [...]


Shortlist Saturdays: Dead Crow Walking by Emily De Angelis
Why do crows walk off asphalt when they can fly
away from carrion
and car
to road’s edge?
Is it just corvid attitude [...]
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