The day before the ceremony, Adeline raked leaves into a multi-colored mound on the Kinsey’s enormous lawn. Ezekial hovered nearby in anticipation. When she finished, Henry stopped his chores and helped her bind a rope to the willow’s strongest branch.
Continue reading “The Jubilee by Michael Barbato-Dunn”
A ring of strawberry lipstick circles the smoothed edge of the blunt as she passes it to me, and I try, I really do, not to imagine what it would be like to kiss her—to taste the berry directly from her lips instead of getting my hit secondhand from this pineapple flavored cigarillo wrapper.
I’m unsuccessful.
Continue reading “Acid Drop by Samantha Barrow”
What do bombs do?
They shatter.
How does the sky feel?
Broken.
Where do the bullets go?
Everywhere.
What do the children say?
Help.
What do the mother’s scream?
Stop.
What does the world say?
Nothing.
What does God say?
We don’t know, yet.
Continue reading “All History in a Day by Ismael Hussein”
I suppose it was meant to happen on the first of December. It was then that Christoph died as I believe he foresaw. I’ll tell you that story now.
Continue reading “Pink Clouds by Samuel Snyder”
On the first day at the dig site on Roanoke Island, I’d mostly used the mattock, trowel, and brush. I also realized just how tedious and boring the work of archaeology could be, nothing like the action-packed Indiana Jones movies I had been obsessed with as a child. I’d volunteered for the part time work, partly for the experience, partly to get closer to Alana, the Graduate student supervisor, and partly to impress my professor in hopes for extra credit in the course. We’d heard all the stories in class. In the five years after the Roanoke colony had been established, visitors found it abandoned when they returned from England, its one hundred plus settlers missing, and the word “Croatoan” carved onto the palisade’s wood.
Continue reading “My Imagination by Niles Reddick”
Wednesdays were egg salad. Strong opening gambit from Linda: she was testing the waters. She and Clint were meeting for the first time. Her carer Lupe had shown her how to use the app which paired her with Clint, she explained, “just before she had to go back where she came from”. That left Linda alone, at the tail end of hip surgery recuperation, still prone to falls but with wits enough about her to click on Clint’s profile. Lucky for both of them, Clint was a fan of egg salad.
Continue reading “GranCel by Leah Mullen”
This piece is another work in translation from Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton. A glimpse of another culture but the lesson or message is, I believe, universal.
Continue reading “Auld Author”
“Mr. Jacobs?” someone says. Roger tries to answer but can’t talk, can’t move a finger. His eyes seem glued shut. “You try,” the voice says.
“Honey, do you hear me?” Roger recognizes the voice of his wife, Carolyn.
“Roger, you’re in the hospital. You had an accident.” Roger has no idea what she’s talking about. “This man is Dr. Johnson.”
Continue reading “In the Blink of an Eye by David Henson”
On Wednesdays, I take my trash down to the curb. You have to wait until 3 pm to bring it down. It gets picked up on Thursday mornings at around 8 am. Our setup is a lot like other New England towns. There’s a blue bin for recyclables, a black bin for regular trash and a brown bin for yard waste.
Continue reading “What We Discard by Gil Hoy”
The clouds moved quickly over the tops of the cypress trees. A storm came over the horizon and the sky darkened. They drug up the jug lines, checked the last of the crab pots, and made for the river. John jumped in the dark water, pulling the lilies from the rudder. He turned the engine on and off as the bay boat bobbed through the duckweed. Following the light, they came out of the back of the bayou, and the branches looped over the path and hung low for a while, then opened up to the Mississippi. The carp were leaping out of the water. The boat sat low and John drug his hand through the wake. The spray kicked up into Ellie’s face.
Continue reading “The Last Good Day by, Thomas Allen Hayden”
literally stories 