by D.R. James You’d like to move on beyond mean memory,skirt that peopled, hollow squalor, pack upyour numerous mind encampments whose smokycook fires now flicker, now flare on this or thatnostalgic hillside—sometimes like codedreminders, sometimes like brash blazes arousinganything but a simpering gratitudefor a brainscape stippled with so-called love.But then…
by Jackie Tricolli I am slow to rise in the morning, no urgency to start the day, no task to get me moving. I am slow to rise from a bed I just bought in a home I just made my own, daylight peeking through windows bearing no blinds, a…
by Rebecca Watters Cast adrift with only a pistol and a single lead ball—a small mercy for which Horatio ought to be grateful after a failed mutiny. He should have got a real job, but smuggling was more lucrative. Money and adventure—Arthur Gray’s siren song—that’s what lured him from the…
by Annh Browder I have always hated noise. After the funeral, it seemed like no one ever stopped talking. “I’m so sorry for your loss,” “She would want you to be happy,” and “If you ever need anything, let me know” were only a few of the constant sounds that…
by Kamy Callow The chamber was quiet. Soft lights pulsed along the white walls, shifting through gentle colors—rose, sapphire, gold—like the room itself was breathing. Children sat cross-legged on padded circles, perfectly spaced across the polished floor. They were six years old. They had no names—only numbers. 717 sat still,…
by Kristin Borders Sherrow had been sitting on the gray metal bench half the afternoon, deep in thought, when the moody stranger approached from the corner of Allan and Lamott. The kid was young, late twenties or early thirties maybe, but each step had a slight catch to it—a limp…
by Angelina Sandoval “Loretta! What’s growing up the side of the house?” Garth stomped in from the front door, dropping his fishing gear against the wall. His wife’s ever-present smile was beaming at his return. “Just some old vines,” she said. “I think they’re rather lovely. But don’t mind that….
by T.R. Healy A Man in Half “Easy now, easy,” Surtees cautioned himself after turning the corner so fast his tires squealed. As he applied his brakes, he noticed that the sharp turn caused the paper bag on the passenger seat to tip over. A few hundred-dollar bills fell on…
by Benjamin Drueke “Near the end of the twentieth century, humankind unlocked the human genome. At the end of the twenty-first, prenatal genetic manipulation was regulated, and all genetic disorders had been eliminated. In 2130, we had a stable colony on Mars. Twenty years later, global warming claimed Earth and…
by Robert Parry And suddenly he was awake. He looked at the clock on his bedside. It read three forty-seven AM. Nothing new about that. Must have been over twenty years since he didn’t have to get up at some point in the night to take a piss. But this…
by Gil Hoy On those windswept weekday mornings, asphalt driveway crusted with snow, my father would get up early, put on his secondhand boots and an old coat, and exit through our front door into the blue hour to get the motor running. That fifteen-year-old station wagon would stall if…