Fiction
April Contributors
Bree Atkins, Kendra Augustin, Laura Brann, Zachary Brasier, Christie Chapman, Cooper Clarence, Austin Eichelberger, Julia Gilmour, Frances Grapper, Michael Hagen, Kendra Kvale, Rachel Christina McConnell, Ken McRae, Robert John Miller, James W. Morris, Renuka Raghavan, Cake Sanchez, Aaron F. Schnore, Judy Slitt, Cathlin Sullivan, and Shuyan Zhou
April Highlights
conversation with disapproving mimi every time she sneaks out to sniff
by Eirene Gentle
“I bear the fur of Finnian on my skinned knee. Would you like to know how I skinned it or just keeping looking at me in that crawly way?”
chill
by Cheryl Snell
“When he commas his body around hers, she wonders how much of his hug is medicinal and how much apology. Wonders why the bed won’t stop splintering.”
pulse
by Tom Misuraca
“Everybody’s digital footprint was deleted, like it or not.”
the countess of shadow pointe
by Beth Sherman
“We heard she was a Russian countess married to an oligarch, with a fortune in rubies seized by the KGB.”
solo at midnight
by Robert L. Penick
“While you rock the glass in your hand, the scars smooth themselves out and nearly disappear. This is good therapy, you think.”
index
by Grover Koger
“elixir of life, formulation by Query, 27
dangerous side effects of, 28
life-prolonging effects of, 29-32, 139, 157
enhancement of sexual prowess by, 45, 97, 117-48, 133-34, 157…”
status quo
by Tejaswinee Roychowdhury
“One rainy evening, a frog drunk on fresh mosquito juice spiked with manure, pointed at the red house and wailed he was forced labour, fated to live out his slippery life within its bounds, deprived of quality mates.”
the haunt of age: a 5-step program for ghosting your ghost
by Karen Crawford
“…anticipate your ghost’s surprise when she floats into the bedroom where your new nipped/tucked body lies. If she goes all poltergeist, rattle, and chain, flash her a ‘friendly’ smile. Your teeth blinding, lips plumped to perfection.”
t is for tino
by Eirene Gentle
“When Tino called in the sharks they were ready. They’d practiced so many times. The circle, the dip. Synchronized finning to the music of Bolero.”
jiggle
by Cheryl Snell
“The Peeping Tom says, it’s lucky the mother can’t see all those folds and puckery! This is not the body she assigned the daughter.”
fountain
by Elan Barnehama
“When we met, she was sitting barefoot on the rim of the fountain, hungry for everything.“
how to stop your mother from wandering
by Beth Sherman
“104) In the picture, she has a crooked smile. Her eyes shift to the left, away from you, toward something you can’t see.”
trigger happy
by Susan Flint
“On the way home from the restaurant Joselyn stops at the Asian market. She walks in between rows of rotating Peking ducks and she thinks about killing herself.”
three stories
by Mileva Anastasiadou
“…he’s water and I’m air, and the fire will devour us at the end, but in a plot twist we will someday devour the world, only we play innocent now…”
fire in the sky
Micro-fiction by James Rayvin
“This time I saw that the craft was levitating. As I approached, a bright beam split the air and trained on my head. The next world has to be better. I carve the moniker into my arm. Raise my hands to the beam. And forget about you.”
chicka-chicka slim shady
by Benjamin Drevlow
“Like Eminem’s I Don’t Give a Fuck but in which I give a fuck about everything, all things, and can’t do anything about them, but scream I don’t give a fuck in Em’s nasally whine…”
aphrodite in an open casket
by Kenna DeValor
“he smell of floral rot: the rose, peony, and soil swirled around me in a delicate game of tug of war.”
wiggle
by Marcus Silcock
“It was 2am and they walked past the parking with license plates covered for privacy. We are only resting, they said. Nothing more.”
voicemails
by Rebecca Karas
“Someone would microwave fish every Tuesday, and the oily scent affixed itself to every plush surface in the vicinity: the shitty office chairs, the fabric cubicles, the stained couch in the break room. I worked in a fetid, hungry mouth, ready to swallow me whole.”
you’re going to the dentist tomorrow
by Rick White
“Once they pry and weedle their way inside they’ll find the tiny souls of all the unsuspecting, wide-eyed creatures who daydream-dawdled into that crooked maw.”