Small. Brightly colored. Deadly to the touch.
Six years ago, she confessed to three things in the following order: Very few people saw the confession—ten bloggers total—and, to make matters worse or, maybe, better, no one who had seen it asked her about it. So, ten years later, she tried again.… Continue Reading “In case you missed it the first time, she confesses again by Salena Casha”
The evening the neighborhood dogs rebelled, gnawing through fences and tethers, we deserted our wine glasses on back patios and bolted inside. We left rakes, lawnmowers, idle in the grass. We grabbed blunt objects and shivered near windows. We were dog people, all of… Continue Reading “Dog People by Abbie Barker”
Sandy walks down the curved stairs that Luther designed to mimic the shape of a woman’s hip, while I pad around the landing to find a good perch. I try to stay silent, but I can’t stop humming the music coming from the surround… Continue Reading “Honeybud by Melissa Ragsly”
The Marions are at it in their front yard again. This is normal. Except usually it’s warmer, like in the springtime after they’ve spent all day planting annuals—splashes of impatiens and pansies—and Mr. Marion’s award-winning tomatoes. A day of bending and swaying flesh. My… Continue Reading “Our Nudist Neighbors are Fighting by Joshua Jones Lofflin”
“It’s a trick of the light, honey,” her stepfather said, meaning it’s not like a whale is about to surface. One hand on her arm so he wouldn’t topple, they were standing there on the side of the boat, hoping to see bubbles, knowing… Continue Reading “Pattern by Meg Pokrass”
Is the back seat of a car an ideal place for introductions? Roslin wonders this as she watches the woman whose name escapes her shut the door of a narrow townhouse and rush down the front steps. She can feel her father’s eyes trying… Continue Reading “Who Do You Think It Is If It Isn’t Me? by Rory Say”
When we are born, you whisper into our purple ears: you are American. The three of us, each six months apart, raised by sister-mothers who’ll never be accepted as American even though you take a test that says you are. But you will never… Continue Reading “We Americans by Reema Rao-Patel”
*THE BLUE FROG 1st PLACE WINNER* Introduction by Guest Judge AIMEE BENDER: Last year I was so taken by Elisa Gabbert’s close reading of Auden’s poem “Musee des Beaux Arts” and how she considered the ways that dailiness and tragedy live in the same moment in… Continue Reading “No Dead Bodies in the Dining Room by Kathryn LeMon”
*THE BLUE FROG 2nd PLACE WINNER* The kids are playing by the creek when the whale bone man appears out of the thicket of wooded trees. On this day the fog is hanging so low and so thick it seems they are surrounded by… Continue Reading “The Whale Bone Man by Kaylie Saidin”
*THE BLUE FROG 3rd PLACE WINNER* Sidney stands naked and eleven before her bedroom mirror, her white arms held out in a crucified fashion. She imagines the skin of her underarms stretched down to attach to the skin of her legs. She wonders if… Continue Reading “Patagium by K.C. Mead-Brewer”