By Michael Keith Jerome Niarhos had no great affection for colored people. On the other hand, he had no deep animosity for them, either. He had never made a big scene about race, like his buddies in the Klan. Mostly, he didn’t think it was smart for the mayor’s office…
By Michael Rhodes It had been raining for three days. The perfectly manicured lawns were drenched, the flower beds saturated, the drains were overflowing with foaming, bubbling water. It seemed as if the weather was sad. The sky was ashen and gray, sheets of water pouring, thunder rumbling. The suburban…
By Jeremiah Bass “What’s the first thing you remember about the dream when you wake?” Dr. Fischer asked. “I remember the heat radiating off the sand,” I tell him just like I tell him every week when we talk. “Why does the heat seem important?” “It’s so intense that my…
![By Anthony92931 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://s45158.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Applebees_night_view-150x150.jpg)
By Nicole Tone Sophie laughed at the joke he tried to make, her hand brushing his arm. “So, yeah, it’s not that funny. But it was the most exciting part of my day.” He was nice and boring, had his 9-5 and his useful degree. Older, but not too old….
By Jacqueline Ledoux Catherine carefully arranged the coffee, French jam, bread, chocolate truffles, triple-berry cheesecake and dessert plates on the serving tray. She momentarily glanced around the kitchen to see if she had forgotten anything. The hostess was always very meticulous when serving her guests. For herself and the family,…
My mother sobbed when she found out she was having a girl. I was to be the first after two boys and for that, she was ecstatic. I’ve seen the video countless times, each time noting the way her beautiful brown hair stuck to her forehead and her mossy green…
By Allen Kopp When Vicki-Vicki was fourteen, she shaved off her eyebrows. They were growing too much, almost meeting in the middle, and she hated the tedious and painful process of pulling them out one by one with the tweezers. She believed that by shaving them off completely they would…
By Andrew Clark Dewey cracked open a bottle of water and drank deeply. “Oh, damn,” he muttered, half coughing, half spitting water down his chest and all over his dusty boots. “This water is piss-warm.” “What’d you expect, those bottles have been sittin’ out here all day,” Harris said, as…
By Eric Erickson I took pictures of the snowfall down Tenth Avenue. There was something more magnetic about the stills than of the reality. Snow falling, when you are watching it, starts out serene and lovely, then descends into a sort of foreboding, before finally leading to a completely unnerving…
The Blatant Realization By Susan Soares When the layers of your onion Finally peeled away I wasn’t happy with your center When the colors of your rainbow Finally shimmered in the sunlight I didn’t bask in their glow When the last of your insecurities Finally freed themselves from you I…