Category: Uncategorized

After the Thrill by Amy Lyons

The woman took herself to the amusement park instead of the motel. The man she’d met at the hardware store had ended it a week ago. In fantasies, her soft-spoken husband pounded the door of room six. Caught, she loved him again. The woman… Continue Reading “After the Thrill by Amy Lyons”

Faded Chrome Man by Jonathan Cardew

We were all searching for the meaning of life. My brothers and I. As the youngest, I was sent to the basement to find it. “What does it even look like?” I shouted up. “You’ll see when you see,” they shouted down. I poured… Continue Reading “Faded Chrome Man by Jonathan Cardew”

Matzo by Kelle Schillaci Clarke

You spot the flyer while jogging in place at the red light on the corner of 7th and Mabel, a thick square of posterboard drilled into the power pole by a hundred tiny staples. It’s a lost cat this time, as generic as they… Continue Reading “Matzo by Kelle Schillaci Clarke”

The Stripper by Candace Hartsuyker

The stripper is thigh high boots and fishnet stockings, tits and washboard abs. She likes how her job is a performance, how she’s not just a woman in a G-string; she’s an artist. She loves what her body is capable of: the high kicks,… Continue Reading “The Stripper by Candace Hartsuyker”

A Cherry-Scented Cigar by Sara Dobbie

A man stands shrouded in twilight on the boardwalk that runs along the edge of the beach. He flicks cigar ashes toward crumbling slabs of overturned concrete, broken and covered in graffiti. The battered remains of stone walkways and fountains rest in gravelly sand,… Continue Reading “A Cherry-Scented Cigar by Sara Dobbie”

Miss Darling by Sarah Priscus

The kids huddle shoulder-to-shoulder, biting their nails and eating scabs, as Mr. Morris opens the door for Miss Darling. She hops out of the car, squinting and rocking. She’s as tall as a third grader, naked except for a straw hat and a thick… Continue Reading “Miss Darling by Sarah Priscus”

Stay by Sarah Freligh

She is alone, so alone in the mausoleum of her apartment that when the ant climbs up the table leg and across the placemat and into the tar pit of syrup left behind on her plate from the pancakes she had for breakfast, that… Continue Reading “Stay by Sarah Freligh”

The Substitution of Air in Different Climates by Rosie Garland & Meg Pokrass

Linda A very sweet exchange student, Inge from Holland, came to live with us the year we both turned fifty. I thought it would be good for us. At first my Bob grumbled. But soon enough, he was offering to help, giving Inge practical… Continue Reading “The Substitution of Air in Different Climates by Rosie Garland & Meg Pokrass”

I Do Not Want to Live Without You by Cathy Ulrich

The motel with its raggedy bedspread and tottering TV that only plays 17 channels, two of them Spanish, and a swimming pool near the parking lot all concrete deck and swim at your own risk and we are swimming at our own risk, broken… Continue Reading “I Do Not Want to Live Without You by Cathy Ulrich”

Pattern Seeker by James Cato

By most accounts, there are very few similarities between a dead frozen bear and a high school wrestler watching porn in the bathroom stall before a match. But as I gazed at the former, splayed in the frost, I couldn’t get the latter out… Continue Reading “Pattern Seeker by James Cato”