January, 2021

Amethyst Ablaze by Swati Moheet Agrawal 

My fiancé’s mother picks out two necklaces – opal and gold. I’m disappointed. I stand still as he clasps the amethyst I’m too afraid to choose.

Swati Moheet Agrawal lives in Mumbai, India. Her work has appeared in Café Dissensus, Friday Flash Fiction, ActiveMuse, Setu,Kitaab, Storizen, Twist & Twain, Indian Economy & Market Magazine, Life Positive and elsewhere. When not buried between the pages of a book, she likes to dabble in decoupage art. Follow her on Instagram @ swatiwhowrites

ONYX Pure Acetone by Josh Urban

January rain falls, an icy clatter as I start packing.  Has God poured acetone over the city?  A trace of color runs in the gutter.

Josh Urban is a writer and musician about to move away from Washington, DC.  

Two pieces by Ramona Scarborough

Break the Ice

Instructions for parties

Deep breath to relax

Select small groups of one to three people

Rehearse opening lines in your mind

Move forward and speak

Sheer Nirvana

Death by Chocolate ice cream

Donuts oozing filling

Pie smothered in whipped cream

Nutty fudge

No calories, no cavities, no guilt,

And scales without numbers

Ramona Scarborough has used other’s life experiences as well as her own to author eleven books. She shamelessly eavesdrops, peeps through windows without being arrested, and plunders material from books, movies, and the news to write her over one-hundred published stories. Her imagination wakes her up at night. She rushes to her computer to write the words tumbling out of her brain. She’s especially fond of her husband, Chris, her five kids, and her two rescue cats.

Three pieces by Jim Bates

Swagger Like This

She looked at the ventilator where her philandering estranged husband lay dying. That’s what you get you big jerk. She adjusted her mask and smiled.

Scallywag

He was a gun waving drunk. She hid his bullets but for one. The one he played Russian Roulette with while she cheered him on.

Quiet Time

Winter wind blew cold across the snow-covered garden where colorful tulip bulbs lay waiting for spring. Like the hopeful old man watching from his window.

Jim lives in a small town twenty miles west of Minneapolis, Minnesota. His stories have appeared in CafeLit, The Writers’ Cafe Magazine, A Million Ways, Cabinet of Heed, Paragraph Planet, Mused – The BellaOnline Literary Review, Nailpolish Stories, Ariel Chart, Potato Soup Journal, Literary Yard and The Drabble. You can also check out his blog to see more: www.theviewfromlonglake.wordpress.com.

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