by Shane David Morin Dust settles silently enshrouding abandoned cities of my psyche The scrapings of nails and screeches of sirens have ceased, Leaving an absence of liveliness and horror in the wake of the Shadow Man’s demise What is left but a void where mutilated memories and surreal sorrow…
by Jon Bishop You’re an idiot, you say to yourself. You’re a complete and utter moron. Your hand is gushing blood, adding color to a day that matches the warmth and tone of the sidewalk. So why did you do it? Why did you smash the glass? Why did you…
by Lou Gaglia In my twenties I played chess and even took a few lessons from a grandmaster in Queens. He was a very nice man, and his wife and daughter were equally nice, and he was patient with me. I learned that controlling the center of the board was…
by Anonymous We wandered these plains before the civil war, before the prophets told of Nineveh’s fate, from God’s merciful hammer and our mules and camels drank this water long before the royal hanging gardens withered and died from neglect. Before the stateless caliphate thugs held our treasures for ransom…
by Kristina Swaim 5 My head plunged below the surface of the water. The water erupted in a tornado of movement. I dug my painted nails into the curved edge of the clawfoot tub as I tried to free myself from his grip. I just love him so much. Why…
by William Bortz I sit and count, in a midday sun, my troubles and woes the casted shadows of full limbs and branches poking through my kitchen window and stretching down the wall the blackened tips of my weary fingers- filing and sorting sight encumbered within my head; a cracked…
by Chris Ross Fade in: INT. GYMNASIUM HALLWAY- DAY The room is pitch black with the faint sound of rapid speech and sneakers squeaking against the floor. The door opens and the light from outside illuminates the hall. KEN “CASH” MCDONALD, 17, enters the room as the door closes slowly…
by Lisa Harris Zero holds a place of absence, a mid-point between plus one and minus one. Look closely at a pie, a cake, a world—things we cut up. Once made, they cannot be enlarged, but they can be shared in different parts, in different pieces, in different chunks. Time,…
by Charles Alexander Neal A long, crooked road stretched between the forested mountains deep in the heart of the country of Mariposa. It was evening and the sun painted the sky in shades of red and gold and cast dusty shadows on the beech trees surrounding a village. The evening…
by Brianna Kittrell She greets you at birth, and you cry in her presence, still she becomes a part of your essence. She sways with the trees and rustles the leaves, and her beauty deserves more praise than it receives. Though she is giving and kind, she is often taken…