LIFE (ABRIDGED) • by Rex Caleval
I was a nerd in high school. The smart kid. It wasn’t like on TV, getting beaten up or stuffed in lockers. But I also wasn’t in any of the cliques, and none of the girls were interested. It was… Continue Reading
Literary
THE ISSUE WITH INTIMACY • by Kathryn Ward
When I was sixteen it was my fantasy to get beaten up. I was sure that a blinding fist to the eye and a broken nose would trigger a release in me, in the same way I imagined jumping off… Continue Reading
THE SHOPLIFTERS • by Nicole Sellew
I wonder if having a guy cum in you once — just a little bit — really makes a baby. I would never get an abortion either way, since I was raised Catholic, but Plan B is kind of a… Continue Reading
RENATO (45 STEPS) • by Annie B. Shapero
Renato would have followed me a thousand miles back to my apartment. At least that’s how it felt in the beginning. The truth is that there were only 45 steps between my apartment and the wine bar around the corner… Continue Reading
THE TEACHER’S TINY TERROR • by Alyson Tait
Dark green yarn. Black button eyes. Stiffly-starched wings. The amigurumi Cthulhu sat on the edge of my desk, watching over my classroom. Its eyes peered into the void of a thousand teenage souls — the dreadful thing had been with… Continue Reading
WHEN WILL IT END? • by James Hannan
As I walk the boundary of my property after dusk, I don’t trust my eyes. I’m trying to make sense of various shapes around me. Shadows lurking behind trees are like people hiding from me. Bushes, jutting out from the… Continue Reading
THE CALIBER OF HOPE • by Michael Pikna
I work a mixture of peat and shredded leaves into the hole, then arrange the bulbs pointy end up before blanketing them with a few inches of dirt. Planting crocuses is supposed to keep me from offing myself in the… Continue Reading
IMPERFECTION • by Rosanne Dingli
Did I tell you about the geranium I grew from a cutting? I stole it from someone’s front garden as I raced for a bus one day. This huge unruly bush — which someone should have pruned — spilled over… Continue Reading
TIE A RIBBON ON THE FAIRY TREE • by Rebecca Birch
If I ignore the door hanging half off its hinges and the swallow’s nest surveying the dust from beneath the exposed center beam, Nana’s cottage is little changed from fifteen years ago, when Dad left me here to “find my… Continue Reading
GREEN BEANS • by Dawn Muenchrath
I found it on the counter by the microwave, under a stack of yellowing envelopes. It was sticking to the bottom of the pile and I would have missed it altogether when I picked them up had it not leapt… Continue Reading