Flash Frog
Small. Brightly colored. Deadly to the touch.
Category: Uncategorized
In a voice too low to wake anybody by Katherine Plumhoff
Let’s say your father got dogs after your mother died, and because the dogs were there you didn’t feel as bad about not going home, so you didn’t, just twice a year, once during the summer so you could get a dripping cone of… Continue Reading “In a voice too low to wake anybody by Katherine Plumhoff”
And These Signs Shall Follow Them That Believe by Laura Grant
Daddy was a widowed Pentecostal preacher, snake pusher, tongue shaker, and in the summer of my eighth year he was getting married again. His wife-to-be was a tall woman with short black hair: Darla. She had strange tattoos in hidden places, what my aunt… Continue Reading “And These Signs Shall Follow Them That Believe by Laura Grant”
My Lament, or Notes from Remedial English by Jeffrey Hermann
The girl I love from afar said I had a face for football. I said what does that mean, and she shrugged with a half smile and checked her phone. Artistry. Oh, the gods of high school have not been kind to me. I’m… Continue Reading “My Lament, or Notes from Remedial English by Jeffrey Hermann”
War—Symphony no. 10723 by Ethan Kahana
Let thousands of people walk into the hall. They will pick up programs from smiling faces, thanking them for coming, as if they had a choice, and telling them how necessary this piece really is. Let the musicians enter the stage, not from the… Continue Reading “War—Symphony no. 10723 by Ethan Kahana”
The Bedtime Emptying of Our World by Joel Hans
At bedtime, our daughter asks for two handfuls of Crayons and a ream of computer paper. She asks for the tiny blanket we crocheted for her when she was six months old. For the doll with fidget-knotted plastic hair. For the plushy puppy she… Continue Reading “The Bedtime Emptying of Our World by Joel Hans”
Companions by Elodie A. Roy
They live above the butcher’s shop. At six every morning the butcher wakes them up. They hear him pounding the meat. It is sometime in the mid-1980s. They’ve not been married for long. They’ve been married for such a short time that they don’t… Continue Reading “Companions by Elodie A. Roy”
Wrong Side Up in South Side, Chicago by Max Steiner
The mother-to-be is on the john with her back slumped against the tank and has 9-1-1 on speakerphone and yells out God she’s pretty sure she’s about to pop a baby right this second, and she tells the dispatch-lady where she’s at on W.… Continue Reading “Wrong Side Up in South Side, Chicago by Max Steiner”
Jamie Duncan by Aimee Parkison
There was one girl who used to love to hitch more than any other at my high school, Jamie Duncan. We were in the same class. This was a long, long time ago. We’re both old women now. Jamie loved truckers because her father… Continue Reading “Jamie Duncan by Aimee Parkison”
The Turkeys by Travis Flatt
Six wild turkeys roam my father’s lawn. Cocksure, they gang, don leather jackets, and brandish butterfly blades. Having staked their claim, how they swagger! They challenge would-be adversaries to set foot, paw, or claw on their turf. Seek rumble. They choreograph dance numbers flavored… Continue Reading “The Turkeys by Travis Flatt”
We Don’t Want Kids by Catherine Roberts
At first, on account of the dress being all puffed up, we thought it was a jellyfish. One that somehow found its way to the wrong body of water, perishing as it glowed in the dark among the clementine rinds and condom packets and… Continue Reading “We Don’t Want Kids by Catherine Roberts”