Poetry
I will tell you only this by Babo Kamel
Narrated by Babo Kamel Every morning that yellow bus waited with its sharp teeth and buckets of seats, each one empty. I lugged my schoolbag burdened with names. The ride was long; made many stops. Girls got on, dressed in daisies, and the boy they called pear head, too. Other boys looked at us sideways [...]
Poetry
Zuccatti Death Songs by Christopher Collingwood
Narrated by Christopher Collingwood Song 1 The river calls to the Zuccatti For the blue moon shines tonight Whispers of souls drown in the water So the river prepares for the dead For the Zuccatti sing songs by the river So the dying rest peacefully at night The Zuccatti stand by the shadow reeds So [...]
Poetry
Reaching by D.A. Xiaolin Spires
Narrated by Dafydd McKimm bones of fingers swinging among the leaves grasping at straws— wormholes to better dimensions BIO: D.A. Xiaolin Spires steps into portals and reappears in sites such as Hawaiʻi, NY, various parts of Asia and elsewhere, with her keyboard appendage attached. Her work appears or is forthcoming in publications such as Clarkesworld, Analog, Nature, Terraform, [...]
Poetry
The Night Forest by Juleigh Howard-Hobson
Narrated by Juleigh Howard-Hobson Every sunset brings the promise of a new dawn. —Ralph Waldo Emerson Thorn bearing branches, curled like cast iron, Reach up into a brilliant sunset. Sky Light falls behind the forest like a flame Thrown down a well. High clouds turn scarlet, turn Magenta, turn pink, then fade and die As [...]
Poetry
Narrated by K. A. Opperman O siren, lead the way and I will follow. O siren, sing to me and I will kneel To taste the curves of foam-kissed legs, to swallow The waters from the contour of your heel To the wet crevice of your silky hips. Your music is my lure, and I’m [...]
Poetry
Narrated by Beth Day The only slingshot I have owned is my voice in an empty room. My God never gave me a stone to throw to topple Goliath or bronze bullets to shoot until the snow blooms like crimson roses while all I hear is the pounding of canons where heartbeats used to be. [...]
Flash
A Human Experience by Lance J. Mushung
A multitude of humanity surrounded me. Many of the humans seemed to move between towering city structures in a random manner, but the closest ones crowded toward me while pointing recording devices and shouting questions. "Where do you come from? How many have you abducted? What's your sex? Why are you here? Are you a [...]
Flash
I Hope They Fail by Nicholas Stillman
Jared’s leg ached up to his knee. The track of wasp stings never went much higher than his ankle, but they hurt like hammer blows. “You’ll have to go without me,” Jared called to his girlfriend. Paula already rode her mountain bike two meters ahead of him, and the hammer blows kept coming. They stopped [...]
Fiction
At the end – really, the very end, the official end, it cannot be more “end” than this – Alan beamed the broad, face-breaking smile of an idiot. At some level, he knew it was wrong, and he would put his head down and try to gain some control, and pull it in. But then [...]
Fiction
Enn’s Invention by Fiona M Jones
In the winter of the dry ground, when the winds blew bitterly but the snow stayed thin, my brother came to birth, and my mother died. Ludd, the one who looks at the stars and knows the hearts and bodies of men, saw that my brother still moved and cut him from his mother as [...]
Fiction
I was making supper when I heard Albert’s dogs yapping in the yard. I figured it was another fox, or maybe a skunk this time. Ever since the dry spring led into an even drier summer, wild animals had been hanging around the yard, trying to steal cat food from the barn. I felt sorry [...]
Fiction
The thunder of dragons’ wings heralded the arrival of more wounded. I glanced at Doran as the young Shaman’s Apprentice sighed. The blonde stubble on his face was streaked with sweat, and his eyes had that exhausted thousand-yard stare. I probably looked worse. The fighting at the front had been fierce. We’d been mending the [...]