by Kristen Field

“Catherine O’Hara died four days before I went in for a partial colectomy to remove a malignant tumor that had cropped up in less than two years and already spread to my lymph nodes.”

by Gail Andromeda Vanhart

“In the typical five man band structure, The Heart is the glue that holds everyone together. Everyone’s best friend, the healer, the emotional support. These are all inaccurate terms to describe my brother…”

by Melody Wordworker

“After more than a month of tasting sawdust, seeing grey, and sleeping 12+ hours a day, I decided, once again, to call the psychiatric crisis line.”

by Bright Aboagye

“As I write now, I recognize how often my life has been induced by recriminations that never occurred out loud. I anticipated them so thoroughly that they became unnecessary. I corrected myself in advance. I punished myself privately. I offered compliance as proof of gratitude.”

by Peter Bertlessen

“In perilous times such as these, I'm reminded of one of my Grandpa Jim's favorite sayings: nothing in life is guaranteed except death, taxes, and fascist regimes burning their country to the ground.”

by David Capps

“When a companion star dies it gives its partner all of its remaining matter, its body, not a mouthful of ashes, its sustenance, for the twins that shared an orbit will be come one, burning bright blue, for the rest of life.”

by Summer Griffin

“The flowers died on Monday. I chose yellow daisies because they remind me of little suns, and I’ve never trusted the real one to stay.”

by Phaedra Saffron

“This drink is honey, spice, and spirit…I shall drink it in your honor, your ever-loving memory. Serenaded by her speeding cars, her homeless men playing all manner of instruments for spare change.”

by Amanda Parrack

“‘I’m frustrated because there are no words to describe what I feel for you, how much I love you...’ and then [she] hands me the rose I would dry on my apartment wall.”

by A. L. Smith

“I should have realized something was wrong when I saw the rag stuffed into the floor vent and heard her lingering on the other side of the door, barring my escape.”

by Shena Cavallo

“I had always imagined divorce was something that happened when you are betrayed, when you fight and scream and treat each other poorly..There is sometimes no terrible event, no great betrayal or revelation, but an itch that never ceases to irritate you.”

by Honor Teoudoussia

“Now, she is tired of his attention. And his crises, and his ADHD, and his PTSD, and his weed smoking. Tired of all the attention on him.”

by Monique Quintana

“The rose garden is dead but not dying. I prop my phone on steps and pillars to take thirst-trap pictures I can pepper my Instagram feed with. In one picture, I am lounging on a rock path, and it looks like I am giving birth to one straggling rose.”

by David Capps

“The kept world dies. The world kept lives. The virtuous grow more virtuous. The weary grow more weary.”

by Erica Anderson

“That little sh*t stop patch of land is permanently burned into my brain. Like Pavlov’s dogs, the sight alone makes my body remember unloading brunch onto very expensive dirt.”

by Kristy Money

“I didn’t have my first orgasm until I was 40. This was by design: In my adolescence and early adulthood, being able to hold myself back from orgasm was my ‘superpower.’”

by Molly Higgins

“‘I host S&M and sex parties in this apartment. Big community for it here in LA.”…“I bet.” I said, hoping I looked natural and cool, nonchalant, like someone who was more than at-home in a sex dungeon.”

by Scott Bethay

“Other hallway chats with [Mr. D] concerned my procrastination, my lackadaisical nature, his not infrequent dirty jokes, and his admonishment to “be careful” because the other teachers thought I was ‘thinking about sex all the time.’"

by Swapan Samanta

“The best horror shows us we've been the monster all along.”

by A. L. Smith

“Every part of my skin glistens with sweat from the unbearable heat of this summer night. The sticky discomfort tempts me to shed the covers, but I will not.”