Fiction
Introduction to Issue 45 Fiction by Edwin Riddell
I must apologise to contributors and readers for the lateness of this issue. Unfortunately this was because of an unwelcome visit from Covid-19, which has caused a good deal of time to be lost. Here are my brief thoughts on the individual selections. Them Noises Stop, Always Do - Stephen King style horror tale, [...]
Fiction
Them Noises Stop, Always Do by John Mara
Late at night, Todd weaves a rented Range Rover around the potholes of a dead-end dirt road.
Fiction
The Asimov Chip by Dean Grondo
She looked exactly like a real human being. The detail was unbelievable.
Fiction
Alone in Skara Brae By Maureen Bowden
Under a collapsed wall at the side of one of Skara Brae’s semi-subterranean houses, I found the torque. It wasn’t made of gold or silver, which would have suggested that it belonged to a priest, priestess or tribal leader.
Fiction
Read This Again Please by Ron J. Cruz
“I don’t know where the ideas come from,” Victor Stevens said quietly before wildly changing his demeanor, roughly opening the covers of his latest bestselling novel, and pressing it to his chest while contorting his face violently.
Fiction
The Thorn of the Hybrid Rose by James Rumpel
Perfect. What Jane could see of the man sitting on the opposites side of the desk was flawless, from the top of his luxurious head of auburn hair to his sinewy torso and everything between.
Fiction
The Forbidden Chapter by Jeffery Scott Sims
Life as a graduate student can be tough. Every one of those blasted professors concocts some monumental project he wants to dump on your head, egghead crap that will eat up your free time and stomp on your brains without any real benefit to yourself.
Poetry
I am pleased with the increasing quality of submissions over the last few years, and they are coming from all over the world. Look at the distribution for this issue: Shannon Cuthbert (Brooklyn, NY ), In the midnight garden Ngo Binh Anh Khoa (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam), Homebound Hibah Shabkhez (Lahore, Pakistan), Knives and Forks Jennifer Crow [...]
Poetry
In the midnight garden by Shannon Cuthbert
Narrated by Shannon Cuthbert The flowers curl like ears to take in whispers of foxes and fireflies, the rattling breaths of the ancient dead. Alone on the grass a girl lies still, decides to inhale fragments of stone. Her lungs are planets, buoyant, blue, so wide they might float high above. BIO: Shannon Cuthbert [...]
Poetry
Homebound by Ngo Binh Anh Khoa
Narrated by Binh Anh Khoa A shrieking wind – a choir of anguished voices – Tears through the stillness of the graveyard, where Dead leaves awaken to the haunting noises Of murmuring trees stirred by the chilling air. The moon – a blot of red that stains the heavens – Infuses lifeless things with spectral [...]
Poetry
Knives and Forks by Hibah Shabkhez
Narrated by Hibah Shabkhez This is the ‘after’ song. This is the song of a sock looking for its missing other, in a world where socks again hold meaning. This is the song of watching airplanes by day and by night with a childhood-like exultation born of their long absence, and of slowly learning to [...]
Poetry
Narrated by Jennifer Crow Sometimes, the grief you have become takes up so much space in my chest, I can hardly breathe for the lingering presence. Cut from stone, burned from steel, you are always one heartbeat away from dream, and I am one breath from disaster. We met on the treacherous ground between holy [...]
Poetry
Water Bodies by Anne Carly Abad
If at first touch she made known the sparkling rush of a waterfall he'd have been certain she was his but her finger whispered like a river in summer nearly dried to its bed. Among them was a saying faint waters aren't worthy close as they are to the air and sky, they dissipate without [...]
Poetry
Narrated by Pitambar Naik Drawing conclusions dabbled with cherries, and redemption. Did someone use the music of a red kerchief on the road to the Red Sea? Down the lawn, chasing the wilderness amidst the sandy horror was necessity. The aroma of the first rain is for life; but spices, garlic and other needs look [...]