SHADOWS AND LIGHT • by Meg Pacelli
I park in her driveway, walk up her walk, and turn her key in its lock. It feels wrong, and the door sticks, as if it agrees. As if even it knows I’m far too late. I’ve driven through two… Continue Reading
Literary
IDENTITY THEFT • by Shoshauna Shy
If Kevin stole the lipstick, if he slipped the tube tagged Fuschia Shock into the front pocket of his jeans, poked it between the denim slits nonchalantly enough as if it were possible to pretend his brain was unaware of… Continue Reading
CHRISTMAS IN MARCH • by Kevin Tasker
One Wednesday morning in the middle of March, Isaac Thomas arrived at his father’s house to find the elderly poet recumbent on the attic staircase, holding onto a Christmas tree. The tree, which Isaac recognized from his childhood, lay on… Continue Reading
SHOVELBUM • by MacKenzie Tastan
Paul looked down at the screen in his hands and sighed. It was the last day of September and he could see the looming winter months of unemployment as clearly as he could see the storm gathering overhead. One bolt… Continue Reading
THE DROPLIFTER • by Christopher Owen
Rose was a droplifter. I must admit until I met her, I’d never heard the term. She introduced me to it when we were on our first date at Starbucks. We’d met on a dating site, and after we’d had… Continue Reading
BEESWAX • by Gavin Boyter
Captain Montgomery Ffitch (retired) finished pouring pine needles into the bee smoker and switched off the television. He’d been disheartened to hear the lockdown was due to end. Bojo and his government cronies were itching to open the country up… Continue Reading
LOSING TOUCH • by Daniel Paton
Bill sat on a bench by the village green. He figured it was a Sunday as the little shop was to be closed all day. He read an old newspaper he’d found until he got so hungry that he couldn’t… Continue Reading
THE PLANE • by F.C. Shultz
I was seven. That’s not right. I had just had the water balloon birthday party, so it was late summer of 1999. I was nine. The sun had started its dive into the cornfield-covered horizon and my stomach was full… Continue Reading
EQUINOX • by Jamie Etheridge
She wants a cookie, chocolate chip. But she can’t eat just one. If she starts, she’ll devour the whole box so she decides to go for a run instead and goes into the bedroom to change into her ‘running’ clothes… Continue Reading
INTERNATIONAL TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY • by Gretchen Bartels-Ray
When I was almost five, my Aunt Evelyn discovered that my birthday falls on International Talk like a Pirate Day. “ARRRRRRH,” Aunt Ev brandished a hooked hand and waited until I looked up from my cupcake. “This be the tale… Continue Reading