Fiction

May Contributors

X.C. Atkins, Kendra Augustin, Ioana Barbulescu, Amy Allen, Melissa Llanes Brownlee, Indigo Carter, Catherine Dean, Michael Fontana, Robert John Miller, Mitchell Ny, Brittany Pike, Albert Rodríguez, Nayt Rundquist, Daniel Sheen, Antonio Sodré, Mick Theebs, and Brian Washines

May Highlights

back in the city

Fiction by Brian Washines
“I took the radio out onto the balcony and tossed it. When it hit the parking lot it went into what appeared to be three separate pieces. Someone in one of the other apartments across the street laughed.”
flowers

Micro-fiction by X.C. Atkins
“I’d dump them into the lake just out of town, as usual. I sawed them into manageable pieces, listening to the Cocteau Twins.”
we dance the hula at the hotel luau

Micro-fiction by Melissa Llanes Brownlee
“and we dance the hula and we dance the hula and we don’t tell our stories not the ones you want to know…”
and then there is nothing

Fiction by Daniel Sheen
“‘I’m scared,’ I whisper, my voice trembling as the first celestial streak appears from over the horizon…can still see their polished brightness reflected in his black-water eyes. Painfully beautiful. The boiling sky veined with the fiery tails of a dozen artificial comets.”
long and behold

Fiction by Catherine Dean
“Let’s just say that if Plato’s Republic contained a perfect form for a bad mother, you might be it…A classic filiophage, like in Medea, like in The Brood. At least Medea knew how to create a beautiful table.”

David Estringel 10/30/25 David Estringel 10/30/25

windowless

by Nolan Knight

“Now sleep stutters. Every night, a window. Its draft cold, blue.”

David Estringel 10/29/25 David Estringel 10/29/25

you are last seen tonight

by Miriam McEwen

“You live inside this mirror now. A hard bruise marking your cleavage. A friend, barefoot, cutting a path for your chair through the wood rot and wild mushrooms. You amaze him. As if nothing scares you.”

David Estringel 10/27/25 David Estringel 10/27/25

indigo

by Joseph Labriola

“it wasn't the book, so much as his relationship to it—if that makes sense…This one, of course, was blank.”

David Estringel 10/26/25 David Estringel 10/26/25

o’reilly’s coming home

by u.v.ray

“all o’reilly knows is every time he sinks that dart into his flesh it feels like being cast adrift in a sea a warm marmalade.”

David Estringel 10/21/25 David Estringel 10/21/25

death dream of poe’s ape II

by David Luntz

“…insane, sure, but don’t forget the moment you bumped into Poe’s ape in a gas-lit Parisian alleyway, wearing a negligée of weeping butterflies and a stovepipe hat…”

David Estringel 10/20/25 David Estringel 10/20/25

the field where we used to play

by Pam Avoledo

“Over here, Sarah calls, and we are running on the green grass in the small field.”

David Estringel 10/18/25 David Estringel 10/18/25

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?”

David Estringel 10/17/25 David Estringel 10/17/25

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.”

David Estringel 10/12/25 David Estringel 10/12/25

pulse

by Tom Misuraca

“Everybody’s digital footprint was deleted, like it or not.”

David Estringel 10/11/25 David Estringel 10/11/25

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.”

David Estringel 10/6/25 David Estringel 10/6/25

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.”

David Estringel 10/1/25 David Estringel 10/1/25

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…”

David Estringel 9/26/25 David Estringel 9/26/25

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.”

David Estringel 9/24/25 David Estringel 9/24/25

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.”

David Estringel 9/19/25 David Estringel 9/19/25

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.”

David Estringel 9/17/25 David Estringel 9/17/25

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.”

David Estringel 9/15/25 David Estringel 9/15/25

fountain

by Elan Barnehama

“When we met, she was sitting barefoot on the rim of the fountain, hungry for everything.“

David Estringel 9/11/25 David Estringel 9/11/25

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.”

David Estringel 9/10/25 David Estringel 9/10/25

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.”

David Estringel 9/3/25 David Estringel 9/3/25

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…”