Fiction
An outstanding collection to showcase in this edition, and a privilege to curate it. Sad, nevertheless, to turn down submissions which at other times might have made the final cut. If there's an editorial principle guiding the choices, it's probably the mixture of light and dark. Plus an inclination, perhaps, towards the Grand Guignol end [...]
Fiction
I loved and trusted an alien who came from two and a half million light-years away. When he deserted me his betrayal gnawed at my guts, with a voracious appetite. “I warned you, Ellie,” my sister, Olivia said. “There was no future in it.” At the time I believed she was right, but now it [...]
Fiction
A couple of years after my sister, Marcy, was killed in a car accident I remembered the day when we were just kids and our family’s station wagon had been run off the road by a truck. I think it was a red truck, but that doesn’t really matter. My father had been driving and [...]
Fiction
The Room with a Hundred Lighters by Nicholas Stillman
The room where the scientists talked to spirits had a humbleness Rebecca would always remember. She glanced over the drab, gray-walled cell as the elevator door closed behind her. Apparently, the greatest discovery of the millennium only required the most basic apparatus. The far wall had a built-in computer screen with a steel folding table [...]
Poetry
Narrated by John Grey The owl hoots for the end-time of woman. It flaps its vast wings’ thunder over the trees. Familiar hills split into entrances wide enough for a herd of wildebeests. By the time the dead pass on through, they’re nothing more than a potlatch of dainty silver bones. Maybe an angel [...]
Fiction
The Old Stoner’s Boner by Ray Prew
I stood in line at the Denver airport; soon I would be on my flight for home. So far so good, I thought to myself. The police haven’t connected me with the body, otherwise; I’d have been nabbed before this. I know I didn’t actually kill her myself; nevertheless, disposing of a body is still [...]
Poetry
In Noir Shadows by Bruce Boston and David E. Cowen
Narrated by David E. Cowen Image of a dim hallway, a tunnel to the forbidden, silent but for footfalls, the creak of old wood, until the repeating echo of steps becomes a wave that sounds in the long seamless dark before you, until pale hands reach, and a white face dances in front of your [...]
Fiction
The beauty of an unstruck wooden match is in the potential. It is uncomplicated. Scratch one on any surface to achieve resolute combustion. Simple phosphorus atop sulphur, like a beautiful redhead wearing a pale beret. She will dance, unbridled, in her full yellow skirt, twirling with wide folds of fire; an impetuous flare that calms, [...]
Poetry
The woman from the end of the paved road by Burgess Needle
Narrated by Burgess Needle I. I See True North An afternoon’s nap took my bearings. True north could have been anywhere. Forceps-delivered babies Like me with crushed Hippocampus Rarely know their own locations. Living with the woman from the end Of the paved road oriented me to: A clear, nearby river, land falling Away behind [...]
Fiction
Klinghofer’s Preview by Jeffery Scott Sims
This night I would violate long standing habit and attend a theatrical movie showing. All my buddies insisted that I must go see the latest Star Commandos feature, the bulging budget, box office smash, fully computerized light show extravaganza, complete with the usual cast buried under a mountain of gaudy special effects. I chose to [...]
Poetry
Lot’s Second Wife by Jennifer Moore
Narrated by Jennifer Moore Waves crash on congregated rocks laced veil, whipping paled cheeks into submission. Jealous winds flung away their vows, drowning them out with their howling, their hymns of desolation, as the temple shook its salted walls, white pillars trembling. Ashen lips met hers— no looking back. Bio: Jennifer Moore’s poetry and [...]
Fiction
Sparkles and Sunshine by S.J. Budd
Dave sighed as finally they’d made it up the hill and the tip of the molten silver sea was finally visible on the horizon, just as he had remembered it. He craned his neck to see better. “See,” he glanced over to Lana, his impeccably dressed wife, “told you it would be worth it. Eh? [...]
Poetry
The Stone Garden by Deborah L. Davitt
Narrated by Deborah L. Davitt Irises of amethyst bloom in the garden, beads of hematite in their hearts; a single spinel rose trickles crystal dew, carbuncle tulips purse like an old woman’s frown, and pearlescent orchids listen intently at the verge. Tangles of long jade grass frame smooth, wide cheeks of gleaming amber pebbles and [...]
Fiction
The Red Maple by Douglas Kolacki
Will purchased his standard bouquet of twelve roses, white this time. Sometimes he went with white, sometimes red. No particular reason; he once got purple ones for a girl of seven. It all depended on how he felt at the time. Bouquet in hand, he headed up Blackstone Boulevard. He'd almost reached the cemetery when [...]
Poetry
My mother ate some stars in wonderland by St. Ifa, a High Priest of Ogunden
Narrated by John C. Mannone 1. Wonderland My father fed on stars in wonderland, Where unicorns feed large among the flowers: Some singing roses, cinnamon and cross, Lit long the land like flames of golden showers. My father ate the stars before the doom, The grim demonic birds with awful song, The grim demonic birds [...]