My Sphincter Bleeds for Chartreuse Anteaters by Phillip Temples
“Many thought that the worldwide aphasia outbreak would bring about the end of the world. It certainly put a crimp in all normal day-to-day activities.” #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
Category: Fiction
The Almost Real Thing by Leland Neville
“Our reconditioned 3D printer just made that gun,” said my boss. “The genuine ones were used by real cowboys during famous gunfights.” #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
The Balloons Return by David Henson
“One day, colorful dots specked the sky as if a rainbow exploded.” #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
The Babies of Borad by Alison Bullock
“The babies of Borad weren’t sleeping. They lay in their cribs blinking. Then the crying started.” #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“What Did I Know” by Adam Conner
“The bottom drawer in my father’s room contains his trash. Crumpled Budweiser cans and Marlboro ash, frayed photos from his childhood.” #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“Retreat” by Amita Basu
“I stand at the corner hailing autorickshaws. Many are ferrying schoolchildren, plastic sacks full of produce, five-litre gas cylinders, or the drivers’ wives holding stacked egg-trays bound for grocers.”
#TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“A Village” by Ken Poyner
“Good news greets Quibble’s return: his wife has conceived.”
#TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“Powerless” by Storm Lomax
“My little brother had shown early signs, spitting up fire with his baby food. My parents were
covered in small burns for the first few years but I’d never seen them so happy.”
#TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“Predictable Recklessness” by Ace Boggess
“When the desk guard told him to report to medical, Cobb was dressed to go, his flimsy khaki shirt tucked neatly into his khaki pants, his sneakers—the good white ones he ordered from an inmate catalogue—laced, his prisoner ID card already in hand.”
#TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“For Thea” by Linda Lacy
Nate turns me toward him, my round belly the bumper between us, his brown eyes plead with me. “Everyone has evacuated. We have to go now. Please.”
#TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“City of Gold” by B. C. Nance
“I lived here when the comet struck,” he said, raising his voice, “and I lost my Nellie when the rain of molten gold came down.”
#TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“New Year’s Day” by Sharon Y. Sim
Microfiction by Sharon Y. Sim
#MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
Microfiction by Corey Bryan
Three Microfictions by Corey Bryan @pip_prompts #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“Andropov’s Dance” by Robin Wyatt Dunn
“The river of silence passes through the large classroom trough, its charcoal sides soft and cool to the touch.”
#TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“Beauty Defined” by Alexis Watson
“Your autumn red curls, wrapped in Nigerian print, crowned your head like royalty. Africa hung from your earlobes, swayed in pride.”
#MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“Game of Interludes” by Patricia Ann Bowen
“He told me how the image of that clear cold gin sliding past my red lips and down my throat had driven him nearly mad with desire.”
#MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“How to Unflap a Flapper” by Leslie Cairns
Step 1: Take your shorn hair, barrette the sides with glimmer, the way you want to be a mermaid, tails extended, breaking hearts with the …
“Deer Hunt” by Sylvia Cumming
I’ve put the sign on the door for a reason: “Day sleeper, don’t ring or knock,” but the doorbell rings anyway, just when I’m dozing …
“The Missing Piece” by Jeremy Decker
A piece was missing. It was a puzzle print of George Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte laid out on …
“Gearshift” by Patrick R. Wilson
The car, an older gas-powered Lincoln, rolled up smoothly, making no splash in the curbside puddle. Driver’s face (human, of course, the Others could operate …
“In All the Weightless World” by Mark L. Anderson
The woman at the cafe was out of breath as she sat in the window seat looking through the early night at the few groups …
Microfiction by Doug Jacquier
DetourmentiaIt began with her putting the kettle in the fridge and calling everybody ‘darling’ because shecouldn’t remember their names. Then she copied the young women’s …
“Masquerade” by Kevin Hopson
“What are we waiting for?” Chris asked, staring at me from the passenger seat of the car. I shifted in the driver’s seat. “Lorenzo told …
“Things We Live Inside” by Liza Olson
I’m making a video game for you to live inside, since you can’t live inside the world anymore. I’ve never made a game before, so …
“Pink Sneakers” by Maggie Nerz Iribarne
The woman passes every day with her pink sneakers and floral running pants and cute son in a navy uniform. The son talks a blue …
“Older Brother” by Robin Wyatt Dunn
“Older brother?” “Not now, I’m busy.” The papers shuffled make a noise like a river on a bank. “Older brother?” “What is it?” “Nothing.” Outside …
“Unsettled Cemetery Dust” by Em Dietrich
In a house, in a heart, a demon lurked. The girl found it in her dead brother’s skull buried in the backyard. She looked into …
“Hares to Hounds” by Marco Etheridge
The boy feigns sleep, but he is ready to spring. Two children stalk his bed, dark-light-girl-boy, clad in spring-green and ochre, barefoot both. The boy …
“Tangled” by Gary Carr
When I think about it, none of this would have happened if Roger weren’t such a slob. After Roger left for the gym, I decided …
“Heavy Boots on a Sunday Morning” by Lea Murray
The Mother sifts through the soil, searching. Using her fingers like a sieve, she tries to find the thin filament sprouts in the mulch and …
“Fury from the Skies” by Erin Swann
There’s a distinct scent to the air right before a Firestorm breaks: acrid and sulfuric, with a touch of sweet smoke. It manifests moments before …
“The Message Sent Through The Stars” by Catherine Yeates
The sky is bigger in Texas. The trees in the Midwest loomed large, stretching their branches upward and forming green canopies that provided shelter. But …
“Blueblack Pier” by Robin Wyatt Dunn
Sometimes I come out here to think—I’m tempted to say “about death,” but that isn’t socially acceptable, and not quite true. Not even death’s cousin, …
“Out of Body” by Liza Olson
I am lying flat on the ground in a quiet living room in a quiet home in the kind of quiet suburb everyone’s at least …
Three Microfictions by Ashley McCurry
My Friends and I Started Having Premonitions About Future Lovers Sonia dreamt of being sawed in half by a mustached magician, rugged steel grinding rosewood …
“What the Wind Brought” by Charles Haddox
When dust rolls in like an eruption and you can hardly see across the street, and everything else (city, mountains, sky) is hidden by a …
“For Them” by Paul Attmere
Since our son was born, you always pull out and cum on your side. I roll onto your side of the bed, still warm and …
Three Microfictions by Conor Barnes
The Dongle You thought you were arriving at the train an hour early, but you got the times wrong and happened to get there just …
“The Firelets – A Fireside Tale” by Christiana Thomas
The wind howled and tore through the treetops, and our horses, Highland and Orion, crowded together to share their heat, but I was warm and …
“The Day in Yellow” by Shelley Davenport
Afternoon. Deep afternoon. Long afternoon. Too deep. Too long. Sylvie in her quilted bed. Try to sleep. Go to sleep. Quickly now! Go to sleep. …
Microfictions by Ken Poyner
FATE Quibble spends the day imagining what he might do, if he had the opportunity. He scolds himself that most of the things he dreams …
“Fireworks” by T.K. Howell
Vincent closed his laptop and stared at the wall. The afterglow of an Excel spreadsheet burned across his retina. He waited for it to fade …
Microfiction by Jennifer Novotney
The Art Gallery I pop into the art gallery lined with textured paintings of the seaside. The artist greets me as she works wielding a …
“Swamy” by Ranjit Kulkarni
I sometimes wonder if people are crazy or from some other planet. But I am not complaining. Why should I? Not at all. After all, …
“A Fair Deal” by Jon Kemsley
The kid next door had stopped screaming and was now bashing out a single flat note on a toy piano. Its parents were upstairs rehearsing …
“That Damn Selfie” by Laurel Osterkamp
If only Joyce hadn’t taken that damn selfie. Her and Tate, laughing at a truck stop in Mexico, drinking beer with lime, his cotton t-shirt …
“The Burial Begins Slow” by Robin Wyatt Dunn
The burial begins slow, carrying up the earth over the barrow for the devils, each in turn highing their breath and turning over the gravel, …
“The Arc” by Nath Oddson
From Atlanta to New York City, I went tripping, delivering packages, on buses and trains, stopping—three days—in Cincinnati. There’s the arc. Greyhound issues you an …
“Close to the Fire” by Bill Kitcher
Jerry backed the ’68 Ford Fairlane into a driveway, then jammed it into Drive, and stomped on the accelerator. The tires squealed and he crossed …
“Plastic Hearts” by Chella Courington
At fifteen Anne bought her first action figure—Wonder Woman. When she saw her on television in her blue starry shorts, legs rising out of red …
“Mortuary Rites of the Blattidae” by Patrick M Hare
The first cockroach appeared during a tour for prospective graduate students. Being a laser lab, we had turned the lights out and configured exhibitions of …
“Rare” by Joanne Howard
Two a.m., well into her night shift at the NICU, was never a good time to receive a call on her cell. “He’s gone,” Jason’s …
“Pandemic Yoga” by Judith Beth Cohen
At the Senior Center, we challenge stereotypes about old ladies. We practice yogaoutdoors for “social distance.” If it starts to drizzle, we ignore it. If …
“Indistinguishable” by Kenton K. Yee
When I was in eighth grade, Dad started feeling “neither here nor there.” The harder he tried to relax, the more violently he’d jitter. The …
“Eyelash Extensions” by Clive Aaron Gill
Brittani, the unmarried maid of honor at her younger sister’s wedding in a small village church, spent years in graduate school. It infuriated her that …
“Scrutiny” by Tim Frank
I played with the curls of your clipped auburn hair that I kept sealed in your grandma’s silver locket, because you always said I didn’t …
“In the Willow Garden” by Isabel O’Hara Walsh
Down in the willow garden, where me and my true love did meet,There we sat a-courting, my love fell off to sleep – “Rose Connelly,” …
“In the Kingdom of Songora” by Linda McMullen
James was a senior when I was a freshman at Salem North High School; I fell in love with him when I heard he’d persuaded …
“Abracadabra” by Christina Marable
The man I loved as my grandfather was a tall, strong, broad-shouldered man who carried a fake ear in his back pocket. With his indigo …
Microfiction by Megha Nayar
Grievances David calls as I’m retiring for the night. “You really need to stop spoiling that dog, Mom!” he begins without preamble when I pick …
“In Between” by Kelly Claytor
Are you dead, Maria? One Hour It seems so. Seven Days Their black clothes. Their black veils. Their white handkerchiefs, dry in their pockets. None …
“Maybe Next Time, Pat” by Mike McLaughlin
The man’s souvenirs were in a box somewhere. He had kept it handy for a few years then put it away. In a desk, then …
“The Sky Traveler” by Dan Yokum
When I remember to look, I will see her. At least that’s what usually happens. I work on the high hill in the towers of …
“Damp Streets in a Dry Town” by Timothy Resau
Countless streets going past, streets and buildings waiting, decaying; lining the city boulevards like tombstones leading into oblivion, waiting to be called into action, waiting …
“Red Sun Red Moon” by Dan Yokum
Pauli stood at the railing on the back deck and flicked glances at the giant red sun fall slowly to the ground. The surrounding sky …
“Remember Miss Dorothy” by Christopher Matthew Thomas
“Is that Dorothy?” Elaine asked as we turned up the driveway. An old woman stood next to the mailbox. Her white legs with blue veins …
“The Living Room Express” by Jared Cappel
You tell me I’m a bird. Calloused hands pinch into my ribs and lift me overhead. In your eyes, I’m soaring through the clouds like …
“One Learns Ruthlessly” by Lydia Storm
“And I learned, gentlemen. Alas, one learns when one has to. One learns when one wants a way out. One learns ruthlessly.” —Franz Kafka, “A …
“Coffee with David Lynch” by Thomas Morgan
“Say I had the power to grant you one wish,” his wife said. “What would you wish for?” “Hmm…” her husband said. “Can it be …
“A Vacation” by Matthew Brinkley
While his children bickered and his wife ignored him, Charlie tugged at the thin paper flap of a packet of tea. His eyes scanned the …
“Departure” by Richard Helmling
On the first day, the sky went out. Davis had trouble remembering what they’d been doing when the noise started. Whatever it had been, they …
“Wildflowers” by Matt McGuirk
People say suburbs are for well clipped lawns with green grass like you see in real estate photos or magazines. We didn’t move there for …
“African Stamps” by Brecht De Poortere
In my first memory as a child, I sit naked in a garden somewhere in the Congo watching ants scutter in line. They lug the …
“Boy, Deer, Chair” by Sam Asher
There’s a cloud in the room that the boy knows as ‘vapour’, knows it in the way he knows his emotions, knows it in the …
“A Future Leviathan’s Prodigious Sister” by Mina Rozario
They called me incandescent. Queens and counts, dukes and earls alike sat enthralled when I performed, swept up in a sea of notes that would …
“Rangoli Man” by Mina Rozario
Maya’s entire town had awoken one morning to find swarms of people milling outside their doors, their skins a mottled mix of colors: sunny yellows, …
“Cardinal Sin” by Jennifer Fox
Julie stared at the cardinal laying in the snow outside her living room window. It was like fresh crimson on white porcelain tile which made …
“The Donkey Saint” by Carl Fuerst
When Emil was in Youth Brigade, his labor unit was relocated to a region called “Janesville Wisconsin.” The territory had already been processed by a …
“A Wounded Sky” by Andrew Johnston
The sky’s been running down my walls for the last week, just these weird regal purple trickles of oily space that squirm their way down …
“Tchotchkes” by Don Noel
“Who’s Rick?” Alicia holds up a fist-sized pewter whale breaching gracefully from a block of varnished wood. Jerry looks up from where he is awkwardly …
“We Built a Fine Madness House” by Lorna D. Keach
Before their house was built, Jan and Stan spent hours staring at the blueprints, hunting for a 90-degree angle. Their architect told them the construction …
“Penny of Ithaca” by P.L. Watts
She’s even made the bed where another man will rape her. The swine have been slaughtered, the silver’s been laid. Everything’s ready. She scans the …
“Nightlife Spots in Little Rock That No One Knows About” by Jeff Harvey
Little Rock is the coolest locale for anyone who believes in the magic of America and is willing to search out fun in unusual places. …
“A Very Full Closet” by Anonymous
Thijs walks to the hallway closet. Alma calls out from their kitchen. “We need to vacuum before they get here.” Behind the closed door, the …
“Unleashed” by Catherine Zickgraf
I clutch Dad’s oak tree leg. He reads the congregation my pre-baptism testimony. Seems myheart rejects sin, especially finger-painting my bedroom during Sunday naptime. But …
“Through Other Eyes” by Marco Etheridge
You are perched on your accustomed bench at the appointed hour, your cigar and the possibilities of another day in hand. The late-morning sun is …
“Transformations” by David Henson
Mom’s breathing was shallow, her skin rough, hair green. I glanced up and saw my father, Fred, checking his phone as his wife of almost …
“A Steppe Doctor” by Sergei Linkov
The doctor’s fingertips have turned to gelatin. He is certain that with each hour they are wearing down, leaving watery smears on the skins of …
“Minotaurs” by Lane Talbot
Red police lights revolved beneath a spread of morning lightning. Two Kahota squad cars sat parked askew atop the rise in the middle of the …
“Little Gem Magnolia” by Paul Rabinowitz
I In an old cafe on Frenchmen Street in The Faubourg Marigny, a ceiling fan churns, throwing dust into the eyes of an old painting …
“Bamboo” by Mary Donaldson-Evans
Privacy. Who doesn’t want privacy? Even if you’ve sold off half your property to a persistent developer intending to put up twenty “McMansions” on it, …
“Gone” by BH James
Bob Sanders awoke one morning from a dream to discover that he no longer existed. He had died in the night. He had been fifty-eight …
“Other Wars” by Greg Farnum
1 It was a very bright hat. It was mostly black, but it was a very bright black. Same for the gold that spelled out …
“Take it Off” by Evan Rodenhausen
It’s odd. I’ve never felt anything like it. I’ve been here for a very long time, as long as I can remember, as long as …
“The Dog in You” by Omar Hussain
My self-destruct button pops up. It sits idle with flirt and temptation, just atop my ribs. Throbs with each perfectly pained thump of my heart. …
“The Dinner Party” by Alexa Hailey
We arrived right on time, although we had debated that. Isn’t fashionably late, well, fashionable? In the end, though, we were on time. Which was …
“Carry Tiger to Mountain” by Morton Milder
In the Third Year of great burning, Mo Mo, the Golden Emperor, made a journey to the monastery in which, as a boy, he had …
“On Perfumed Wings it Ascended” by Andrew Johnston
When the dragon first wound its way through the fragrant mist that swallowed the mountain, most had no reckoning of its nature. It was a …
“Those Black Americans” by Evelyn Umezinwa
My finger banged on the tiny doorbell. I paced back and forth trying not to fall off the tiny step. Finally, the door slowly creaked …
“Nigh” by Scott Mitchel May
Harvey Olsen never had any interest in surviving any kind of apocalypse — not zombie, not viral, and certainly not nuclear. He honestly did not …