Flash Frog
Small. Brightly colored. Deadly to the touch.
Category: Uncategorized
Frailty is a Form of Grief by Maia Kowalski
1. My great aunt’s house smells like bathroom cleaner and cooking oil. Her kitchen is white-tiled everything. There are always dishes in the sink. The range hood above her stove is broken; one of the panels has fallen out and exposes the hollow insides,… Continue Reading “Frailty is a Form of Grief by Maia Kowalski”
Wrestling by Augustine Okam
We are liars. Not the acquired kind; it is the congenital kind. Our mothers lied to us in-utero, and the lies seeped through their growing placentas to corrupt our developing brains. This is the only reason why we brag and hit our bony, flat… Continue Reading “Wrestling by Augustine Okam”
Australia by J.W. McCollum
When your mom finds the hole in the yard, she makes that face, the one she made at dad last night. You’re too old to be digging holes, she says. What if your sister falls in? Or one of the neighbor kids? Do you… Continue Reading “Australia by J.W. McCollum”
Boys by Carly Alaimo
Here in this pine-addled expanse where everything is a tree until it’s a farm until it’s a subdivision until it’s sprawling strip mall with a Kohl’s, a Target, a Smoothie King and a Honeybaked Ham, there are boys with four-wheelers and helmet hair who… Continue Reading “Boys by Carly Alaimo”
Paint Yourself Black by Sarah Thomas
We swap sweet mascara lashes for soft kohl pencils in jet black. Melting at the tip in the murmuring heat that comes from within our own excitable bodies. We paw at ourselves, Susie and I. Little kittens in the mirror. Bumping elbows, trying not… Continue Reading “Paint Yourself Black by Sarah Thomas”
Imagine the Fire by Allison Field Bell
We read the devastation in the newspaper: Coffey Park and Paradise. But we don’t have to: it’s outside in the air—the ash, the thick clogged sky. We wonder who will be next and will it be us? We remember a time before fire season.… Continue Reading “Imagine the Fire by Allison Field Bell”
Backyard Sea by Tara Isabel Zambrano
Six months after her husband had died, she saw her backyard littered with seashells, fish skeletons. It was a grey morning, and a starfish was stuck on her bedroom window, its little tube feet moving on the glass. She was unsure about stepping into… Continue Reading “Backyard Sea by Tara Isabel Zambrano”
Speedway Families by Connor Harding
You spent a lot of time in gas stations growing up. Speedways, mostly. One on the corner of Tylee and Main, another riding the sideburns of the township administration building, two more split-legged on the PA border. Red racing stripes corseted the torso of… Continue Reading “Speedway Families by Connor Harding”
Tooloulou by Holly Grover Brandon
I called him Tooloulou, the Cajun word for crab. He reminded me of them little critters, the way he scurried ‘round the Square on skinny legs before stoppin’ at my table, watchin’ me read a tourist’s palm. “You got a mama, cher?” I asked… Continue Reading “Tooloulou by Holly Grover Brandon”
The Laws of Tragedy by Ryan Griffith
At first it was Father’s pocket watch we found in our garden, crusted with mud and rust, his initials E. E. G. clearly etched into the metal. “It’s impossible,” Mother said. “We buried that with him.” It should have been hundreds of miles away,… Continue Reading “The Laws of Tragedy by Ryan Griffith”