Contest Winner
Weed
The sky went dark on a Monday, pushing the straining sun behind a curtain of smoke, creating an opaque swath…
Another Friday
Back home inside our first floor apartment at 2PM, as we were, after a morning at the city library where…
Good Dog
Dad calls it “Eyesore Trashtown”. I don’t read perfect yet, but looking at the letters on the sign, I don’t…
Scintilla River & A Boy Under Glass
His body was cocooned in ice. A casket of ice. Like one of those gag gift ice cubes—plastic-clear with a…
Dog Years
I was on our excuse for a back porch, no one ever put in screens, and it smelled like oranges…
Nest
“The birds are always watching,” Mama used to say. We had a bird cage in nearly every room of the…
Blossoming
The bruises bloom like purple flowers. Hibiscus perhaps. Hibiscus rosa-sinensis. The marks will fade to a deep blue. Like cineraria.…
Christina
I named her Christina. She began as they all did—a greasy secretion that shimmered and then solidified into a milky…
Jigsaw
My sister Jane and I make the ideal jigsaw puzzle partnership. She’s more organized than me, the one who categorizes…
Secret to Marriage
They sit in silence on the farmhouse porch. It’s nothing, he hopes. Earlier as his wife lay sleeping, toes twitching,…
Submit Your Stories
Always free. Always open. Professional rates.