BAR ASSOCIATION • by Leigh Lewis
I arrived at the hotel bar just as things were picking up, slid onto a barstool and swiveled to peek up at the big guy next to me. Well, I tried to, anyway, but looking up through my new mink… Continue Reading
Humour / Satire
THE COMMODE • by Joan M Hendricks
I remember the summer of 1952 as momentous. Momentous because that summer plumbing was installed in our family home that sat on a dirt patch forty miles south of the Canadian border. I was seven with four siblings below me. … Continue Reading
TODAY I DROPPED A PUNNET OF BLUEBERRIES • by Elaine Mead
It was supposed to be a quick in-and-out job. I only needed some fruit. Nothing fancy. Some bananas, some apples. Maybe grapes if they were on offer. A simple trip. Until I saw the blueberries. The ripe, purple-blue, bubbles gleamed… Continue Reading
HEAVY METAL • by Eric Casdorph
I’d like to begin by saying Johnson’s a liar. Johnson’s a goddamn liar if I’ve ever known one, but I’ll be shot and hanged ’n banged if he ain’t real entertaining about it. He’s a funny guy, Johnson. Real funny.… Continue Reading
THE CUCKOLDRY OF HENRY VIII • by NickGallup
Young Francis Deerham and Sir Thomas Culpepper stood wearily in the dock. Their trial was a sham, with little permitted in the way of defense. The Archbishop of Canterbury himself, Thomas Cranmer, acted as prosecutor, and he was especially theatrical… Continue Reading
SOFT BOYFRIEND $7.99 • by Phyllis Reilly
Every morning, I turn on my laptop and check my emails. Very few of them are personal, mostly junk mail. I don’t bother opening them… just go down the list and delete them. But today one of them caught my… Continue Reading
FULL MOON ON A SATURDAY MORNING • by Frank Zubek
“It never blinks.” Fred and John were playing chess. John glanced at Fred, and then at the security camera Fred was staring at. “The camera?” John asked, not hiding the slight irritation in his voice. Fred’s preoccupation with the newly… Continue Reading
ISAAC NEWTON FAILED TO ACCOUNT FOR LOVE • by Anatoly Belilovsky
On a cold, snowy day in January, as an old song played on the radio, Joe, whose birthday was in September, had more trouble than usual getting ready for school. “Eat your breakfast, son,” his father said. “Today is, what,… Continue Reading
SAFEFIELD • by North Cady
“How could this be happening?” “As I said, it’s a field, not a shield.” “But in the advertisements it looks like a shell of light around the guy’s house.” “Yes, I’m aware of the commercials, Mr. Alderson.” “The tree just… Continue Reading
THE COLLECTOR • by Nyki Blatchley
Inside the poem was safe and quiet, but the word knew its time was limited. Even here, amid the heady chaos of surrealism tinged with psychedelia, staying still for too long could be fatal. Peering out from between two random… Continue Reading