April

Photograph by Nicole Monaghan

 

In My Back Pocket by Hannah Karena Jones

I keep paperclips and ticket stubs and Post-Its folded four times over and abandoned shells that don’t whisper ocean sounds in my ear and you.

 

Hannah Karena Jones is an Assistant Editor by day and a YA, fiction, historical, and memoir writer by night. Her work has appeared in Weave magazine and The Susquehanna Review, among others, and her book, Byberry State Hospital, is forthcoming from Arcadia Publishing. She maintains a blog at http://thewwaitingroom.wordpress.com/. 

 

 

Flurry Up by Dan Sicoli

All she could remember was how fast

they rode through the snow and how the

Camero’s window stuck open. The weather

floated down like ash.

 

Dan Sicoli is the author of two chapbooks from Pudding House Press–Pagan Supper and the allegories. Odd weekends he bangs out chords on an old Gibson.

 

Infatuation by Esther Thurman

 

Piles of letters. One began, You don’t know me. I love you. He tossed the page, kept her photograph. Death Row was such a drag.

Esther Thurman spends most days alone with urges to sublimate certain emotions–at times, in good order; at times, in pandemonium–by writing, drawing, and making photos. Other humans interest Esther immensely, especially those in need, lost, or troubled. After her death, her remains will be transported to and studied at Knoxville, Tennessee’s “Body Farm” (University of Tennessee Forensic Anthropology Center).

 

Big Apple Red  by Bruce Harris

They met for the first time after countless online exchanges.

“You’re Big Apple Red?”

She hesitated, said nothing.

“You’re not from the city, are you?”

Bruce Harris enjoys relaxing with a Marxman.

 

 

Caught Red-handed by Sue Ann Connaughton

He assumed she’d pine for him after he left in the morning, until he found her fluffing away traces of his head-shape from the pillow.

Sue Ann Connaughton writes compact pieces from a drafty old house in Massachusetts. Her most recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in Barnwood Poetry Magazine; The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts; The Linnet’s Wings; The Citron Review; The Meadowland Review; Boston Literary Magazine; On the Premises; Twenty20 Journal, Nasty Snips, and The Binnacle Eighth International Ultra-Short Competition anthology.

 

 

Two pieces by Rachel Wolford

Now You Sea Me

In the cove, we dally as the tide rises. With a flip of my tail, I plunge with you into the depths. Even lovers drown.

Jezebel

Flea-ridden and scratching, I wandered to my favorite shade. I had begged no breakfast in the market. Blood on the pavement made an adequate lunch.

Rachel Wolford enjoys the challenge of tiny stories.

 

 

Charmed by Sabrina Bullock

Sweet and sassy like the tea in the south.  Yet only gentle curses come out of her mouth.  “Bless your heart,” she says real smart.

Sabrina Bullock is a writer living in Kittrell, North Carolina.  She enjoys cooking, gardening, crocheting, sewing, and especially writing poetry. 

 

 

Two Pieces by Sandra Wilson

Scarlet

Time for face paint, heels to walk to war.  Attack the town and hit the disco. No ammo, just drink to mollify your enemy. Partner.

Wellington Square

Do not fear the rain that births the green beneath our feet.  Lightning burns away the dark. Thunder restarts your heart.  Walk bravely into the storm.

Sandra Wilson, 29, is a UK resident who has been writing since she was very small. Recently these stories have escaped into literary lunes and static movement. She is currently editing her first novel into some state for submission.

 

 

Russian Red by Brooks Rexroat

Russian Red and dimples when she returns my crosswalk smile; I pivot, hope for eye contact—but it’s just swaying jet black as she recedes.

 
Brooks Rexroat writes and teaches in Cincinnati, Ohio. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Visit him online at http://www.brooksrexroat.com.

 

 

Marine Scene by Joanna M. Weston

The yacht leans into the waves. She trails one hand in the water. Watches the bubbles rise from where his body sank. ‘Champagne,’ she thinks.

Joanna M. Weston has had poetry, reviews, and short stories published in anthologies and journals for twenty-five years. Her  middle-reader, ‘Those Blue Shoes’, published by Clarity House Press; and poetry, ‘A Summer Father’, published by Frontenac House of Calgary. Her eBook, ‘The Willow Tree Girl’ at her blog http://www.1960willowtree.wordpress.com/  or http://smashwords.com/b/137826

 

 

Vermillion by Terry Sanville

The crippled soldier stares into Chaco Canyon. A hawk cries. I look up at the soaring raptor. When I look back, the soldier is gone.

Terry Sanville lives in San Luis Obispo, California with his artist-poet wife (his in-house editor) and one plump cat (his in-house critic). He writes full time, producing short stories, essays, poems, an occasional play, and novels. Since 2005, his short stories have been accepted by more than 150 literary and commercial journals, magazines, and anthologies including the Picayune Literary Review, Birmingham Arts Journal and Boston Literary Magazine. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize for his story “The Sweeper.” Terry is a retired urban planner and an accomplished jazz and blues guitarist who once played with a symphony orchestra backing up jazz legend George Shearing.

 

Barely Nude by Ray Sharp

The illustrated woman, inked from her neck to her fingers and toes, stripped down to a smile suggesting she still had something up her sleeve.

Ray Sharp is a published poet and short story writer from the Michigan Upper Peninsula. He does not wear nail polish, but he has been to Warsaw and Gdansk.

 

 

A Story in Four Chapters by M.C. Harris

Otherwise Engaged

Kettle whistles.  Voicemail beckons.  Clouds chug past her kitchen window.  She sips, listens again to the message, finger poised over her future.  Sips.  Listens.  Delete.

Social Climber

She twists her wedding band in circles, contemplates the future: the clack of his teeth, his whistling nasal passages, the peculiar syntax, previously so endearing.

Don’t Think Twice

That little noise he makes when he proves her wrong.  The hand closing to a fist.  The suitcase she packs is of the highest quality.

Warming Trend

Bed. Blanket.  Dear God, a pillow.  From down the hall, whispers of sheltered women filter into the dreams of her children, asleep under donated comforters.

M.C. Harris has been thinking about how and where we end up, and why (Luck? M.C. wonders. Design? Dogged determination? Hard work? Blessings from above?), and invites you to read the chapters in whatever order you choose, in search of the happiest ending.  M.C. continues to ponder the impending supernova.

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February

Two pieces by Bl Pawelek

 

China Glaze White

With teeth, I pull the white sheets tighter around wrists and hands. I don’t want them smaller like Chinese foot binding. I want them gone.

 

Deep Space

I taste my wife’s lips as the dawn sets. God’s love rests in my breast pocket. “Go on.” It does as instructed, my eyes closed.

 

Bl Pawelek is a dad, hiker and writer. He grew up on a small Japanese island (kinda true) and wonders if his Master’s Degree in Literature was worth it (still not sure). There are stories, poems and plenty of art (Google search). The Equation of Constants and Ten Everywhere and the unfirm line. He tries to show mad love to everyone, especially you.

 

 

Skinny Jeans by Brian Baumgart

She holds the line, long fingers on the doorframe, skinny jeans slung low. With pitch and scream, her daughter rails about the lack of fairness.

Brian Baumgart is the Coordinator of Creative Writing at North Hennepin Community College just outside Minneapolis. He holds an MFA from Minnesota State University, Mankato. His writing has appeared in or is forthcoming from various journals, including Ruminate, Blue Earth Review, Blood and Honey Review, Tipton Poetry Review, and Blink-Ink.

Two pieces by Laura C. Alonso

Ballet Pink

Pale and lovely, these reliable shoes perform–allowing her to dance around all sorts of things you never see that take place behind the scenery.

Peach Skin

No sweet fruit to nourish the spirit, just a thin film that veils each day–velvet cheeks, never kissed . . . the souls of our unborn children.

Laura C. Alonso‘s work has been published in In Posse Revie, Linnaean Street, 3AM Magazine, SFWP, and other online literary journals. She is the former Senior Editor of Fictionline Press and former Fiction Editor of The God Particle (two sorely missed online venues), and she was  was a finalist in the Santa Fe Writer’s Project’s Literary Awards Program in 2001, 2002, and 2010.

 

 

Dream-Maker  by Joanna M. Weston

She sipped the wine; poured more into the glass. Pictured Tom, his hands on her shoulders, breasts. She lifted her glass again. ‘Dream-maker,’ she whispered.

Joanna M. Weston has two cats, multiple spiders, a herd of deer, and a line of prayer flags. Her middle-reader, Those Blue Shoes, published by Clarity House Press; and poetry, A Summer Father, published by Frontenac House of Calgary. http://www.1960willowtree.wordpress.com/

 

 

 

Lincoln Park After Dark by MM Wittle

“KAFKA ON THE SHORE” confounded two more theatergoers. Terrance sliced the salty, autumn air, “Molly’s?” Sasha tugged his hand. “Yes.”  They craved normalcy and cupcakes. 

MM Wittle is a Professor at Neumann University. MM has an MFA from Rosemont College in Rosemont, PA in Creative Writing.  Her thesis, “Family Guidance” and “The Education of Allie Rose” are two plays that won Thesis of Distinction from RosemontCollege. “Family Guidance” had a reading at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, PA and was selected for honorable mentioned at the 5^th Annual Philadelphia Theatre Workshop’s Playwriting Competition. “The Education of Allie Rose” was a finalist in the Philadelphia Ethical Society Playwriting competition.  For the past six years, MM has been a fiction board member of the local non-profit literary magazine, Philadelphia Stories and has written many book reviews and countless blogs for them. MM has also written four book reviews for the creative non-fiction magazine, www.brevitymag.com.

 

 

Copper Coast  by Helen Losse

The lake was drained to fix the bridge.  Sky blue water gave way to brick-red, sun-cracked mud. Copper Coast is a misnomer for what’s yet-to-return.

Helen Losse is a Winston-Salem poet, the author of two full length books, Seriously Dangerous (Main Street Rag, 2011) and Better With Friends (Rank Stranger Press, 2009) and two chapbooks, Gathering the Broken Pieces and Paper Snowflakes.  A reprint of Paper Snowflakes is forthcoming in March 2012 with the title Mansion of Memory.  A part of the proceeds from this chapbook will go to the Joplin (MO) Bright Futures Tornado Fund to help poor children affected by the 2011 tornado in Helen’s hometown.  Her recent poetry publications and acceptances include Main Street Rag, Iodine Poetry Review, Blue Fifth Review, The Pedestal Magazine, ken*again, Referential,  and Literary Trails of the North Carolina Piedmont.  Helen’s poems have been nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize and three times for a Best of the Net award, one of which was a finalist.  She is the Poetry Editor for online literary magazine The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature.  Helen uses nail polish to paint angel statues, so she looks for colors she wouldn’t actually choose for her nails as well as the ones she would.

 

 

Russian Roulette by Melissa Ann Goodwin

Yolanda loads one bullet, spins the chamber and slides the gun across the table. Grinning, but not in a good way, she says, “You first.”

Melissa Ann Goodwin is author of The Christmas Village.

 

 

Peach Lover by E.C. Norris

He kept her indoors, with dim lights, from flush eyes. A Creole love call shook the walls, window scraped open. Climbing out, winter flayed her. 

E.C. Norris forgoes regular bedtimes, with mixed results. 

 

 

Smoky Canvas by Dan Sicoli

The allure was bending her into shapes.  At first I thought she did it with mirrors, until I realized I had walked into a fog.

Dan Sicoli is an editor with Slipstream Magazine and press.  Car fenders, broken guitar strings, party dresses, and three-legged dogs have often made their way into his writing.  He also oven dries his own garden tomatoes.

Two pieces by Bruce Harris

Dark Room

He removed the closet door and took pictures with his camera. The fire marshal found traces of him and the door, but not the photos.

High Maintenance

She was beautiful, but keeping her home was impossible.  There were constant oil changes, carburetors, timing belts, tune-ups, you name it, and she needed it.

Bruce Harris enjoys relaxing with a Marxman.