Kierstin Bridger, Kari Nguyen, Joanna Delooze, MaryAnne Kolton, Gill Hoffs, John C. Mannone, 9/26/11

 9/26/11

 

Two Pieces by Kierstin Bridger

Cherries In The Snow

The drifts were higher than our leg-warmers.  We promised those cute college boys, thought we’d return with our undies in our back pockets, but no.

A Ruby for Rudolph

Your hair catching sea urchins, barnacles and rust are your new armor.  Face it Dear, we’re both sunk now.  This treasure will never satisfy you.

Kierstin Bridger lives a renaissance life in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, designing, writing, reading and planning the next great adventure.  Her published works include Condomnation in the 2011 issue of the Porter Gulch Review, the one act play  in The University of Washington’s literary publication Bricolage.  Her short story Girl’s Room, was printed in UW Women’s Voices. Her flash fiction piece will appear Spring 2012 in Stripped: A Collection of Anonymous Flash Fiction from PS Books.   She is the 2011 winner of the Mark Fischer Poetry Prize.

 

 

 

Breaking Curfew by Kari Nguyen

Softly she ascends the darkened stairwell, avoiding the moon, her boots leaking stardust and wine.  She places her jewels on the bedside table, breathes goodnight.

Kari Nguyen is a writer, editor, and proud mama to a new little girl.  Though her curfew days are long gone, she can still rock the shade. For more on her fiction, visit her at http://karinguyen.wordpress.com/.

Two Pieces by Joanna Delooze

Space Cadet

He climbed into the space between her ears, hoping to be dazzled. The weight of silence threw him against the walls, bouncing him to nothingness

Charmed, I’m Sure

He talked too much, all about himself. His friend, on the other hand, said nothing at all, so she wanted him, more than air itself.

Joanna Delooze is a former New Yorker now residing in Nothwest England after being seduced by a laughing Englishman with pale blue eyes and a lovely accent.  When she isn’t neglecting her housework and children to scribble furtively in dark corners, she can be found chairing the local PTA, daydreaming about what her first book cover will look like, and running a writers group full of charming, talented, funny people.  You can find her on FB at Wire Writers Warrington, Joanna Delooze, and at bumblefingers.blogspot.com.  She has been published in Women’s Weekly Fiction Special, upcoming in October on Pure Slush, and hopes to soon finish the first draft of a novel inspired by seeing the Angel of Death in a cloud formation as she did the school run one day.

 

 

Urban Decay by MaryAnne Kolton

He rolled the empties back and forth across the floor all night long, missing the rats, the fallen ceiling tiles and the rotting cat mounds.

MaryAnne Kolton is currently working on a collection of short stories.  Most recently her work has been chosen to appear in the fall and winter editions of The Toucan Magazine and in the winter editions of Wildnerness House Literary Review and Lost in Thought.  She is married to the writer James Lloyd Davis. 

 

Pounded on the Kitchen Table by Gill Hoffs
 

White marbled red, mushing with onion; I hide my ring with fresh meat, his.  Hear laughter outside, and wait for his friends to burger off.

Gill Hoffs lives in Warrington, England, though her mind wanders all over the place.  She doesn’t paint her nails, but she doesn’t chew them either, so let’s forgive her her scruffiness.  Her work has been or will be published in a variety of print anthologies, magazines, and online, including the upcoming Stripped.  Check out her new website at http://gillhoffs.wordpress.com
 

 

Three Pieces by John C. Mannone

Orange You Bad

Smeared on her smile — hints of Innocence. Coy lipstick and babydoll eyes glimmer through early shadows. A familiar story, even though she is only three.

Tempranillo

Hair drips sunlight as onto curled stems of a grapevine. Spanish lips more lush than Merlot press into tissue. Child’s eyes prune her mother’s face. 

Sour Grapes

They say it’s the little foxes that spoil the vine. But I often wonder if it really wasn’t the goose taking his gander for granted.

John C. Mannone has been nominated three times for the  Pushcart Prize in Poetry.  He has published over 200 poems and short fiction in journals such as The Pedestal, Glass, Lucid Rhythms, Prime Mincer, The Medulla Review, Apollo’s Lyre, Pirene’s Fountain, Aethlon, Wordgathering, and The Linnet’s Wings.  He is the poetry editor for Silver Blade and the assistant poetry editor for Abyss & Apex.  When not writing, teaches college physics in east Tennessee and serves as a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador. Visit The Art of Poetry: http://jcmannone.wordpress.com