by Tracy Lyall Songs of 70s rock stars are fading, with old albums—vinyl records in colorful covers stacked on top of each other, thirty, forty at a time—lying dormant in a thrift-store window display. The roller rink is closed down, wooden floors scratched by skate wheels, molding and mildewing. The…
by Robert Kirk Scott Under the bed, in the dark, he remembered what it had taken to get him here. He remembered leaning back into the scratchy upholstery of the train seat, looking out the window at them, as the train lurched forward, ready to roll south. He didn’t believe…
by Amy Covel We’re pale white Tonight Like ghosts Haunting the graves Of the places We’ve stayed Forced to conform To the order To which we were born You and I are bound Forever Two ghosts together Our untimely deaths Stole away our breaths But didn’t deliver us From the…
by Christian Linville When Anna received the wedding invitation from her best friend in late spring, she felt a wave of nostalgia. She recollected Katy’s young, beautiful face. She thought of the stale classes and shared angst of their last days of high school. The elegant calligraphy and formal wording…
by William Thompson He got into the house on a Tuesday. Tuesday was trash day. I was coming back through the gate after dumping the garbage in a barrel when I saw him. Stupid to leave the door open. And no way to stop him. There he was—on the top…
by Dennis Daniels Blanz Valentine is an average guy who works on an assembly line of Ford Manufacturing Company. He fancies himself as the companies counselor who has all the answers for everyone’s problems. Many see him as the man behind the bar that they bring their troubles to for…
by Mary Julia Klimenko Julia Pearl had been to therapy enough years to understand it was her job to find things to do and her job not to complain if her life wasn’t going the way she wanted it to go. Her therapist always pointed out, when Julia Pearl complained…