by Ihor Pidhainy Bread and potatoes, Add a dollop of cream, A cabbage, a beat, a carrot, And the occasional cutlet or chicken, And you have your diet Foolproof for centuries Unless a famine strikes, Your neighbor steals your grain, And other crops are siphoned off. Your children and parents thin out And die, and you hobble along Until your neighbor…
by Emily Brochu The Siren’s Song They say the sea remembers. Every secret whispered into her waves, every cry lost to her depths, she keeps. And so she remembers Lyra. Cast Overboard It was Roger who dragged her from the shadows of the lower deck. His hand was a vise on her wrist,…
by Yuan Changming During the great flood Noah hid himself in the ark While Dayu tried to contain it With his bare hands Prometheus stole fire From Olympian gods While Sui Ren got it By drilling wood hard Smart Daedalus crafted wings To fly away from his prison-tower While Old Fool removed the whole Mountain blocking his way …
by Shaun O. Ceallaigh Albert Clark shuffled along the empty church’s central aisle, countering the weight of the oxygen tank on his back with his walking stick. He stopped beside a pew and placed another printout of the Miracle Prayer on the bench. Once he had distributed all ten copies…
by Sarah Carleton A single hummingbird measures the crash and pull of waves beneath a wide sky. No green shimmer and near-invisible flight—the sprite holds still,black as a quarter note. Palms twice the girth of the ones back home rise into the clouds.Royal palms, they’re called, a name that tastes British, like…
by Yuan Changming With their most tender touches, snowflakes Have painted the whole night white, Including the darkest corner in sight Even within a forgotten dream Except the plum tree, standing alone there Under the eastern sky, whose Flowers are blooming boldly against The entire season, more vibrant than blood
by Tony Moreira Time didn’t pass in the attic. It curled, coiled, and even lashed out. It also maintained a dark silence that remembered everything. Filled with timeless dust and shadows, the air carried the awful scent of dread from the years that passed. A single window in the room…
by Rose Mary Boehm 1 The first time I met death I didn’t crumble under its weight. I was very young but recognized that something important had changed. I hadn’t known her that well, but she had been kind, and I would miss her once I understood. 2 They knocked with a big knock. I almost…
by Jeffrey Ronay Forty-year-old Tom Riley climbed into his spacesuit and dialed the helmet ring to the external setting. Angie, the Suit’s reassuring voice, confirmed, “Suit pressure is nominal—internal temperature set to seventy-one degrees.” A smile flashed on his weathered skin, tiny lines drawn from too much exposure to the…
by James Sennett chair was not Bonnie’s. How could it be? None of the telltale slouching evident in the faded cushions made of crushed flowers of indiscriminate species. Fitting just so for the visitor to lounge for a bit before taking the money of the neighbor you hated for stealing your recipe of some pie or other. Like it mattered anyway.