“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 …
Category: Fiction
“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 …
“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 …
“1984” by DC Diamondopolous
James, as the doctors and staff at St. Mark’s Regional Hospital in San Diego insisted on calling him, applied pancake make-up over the band-aid camouflaging …
“These fragments I have shored against my ruins” by Jie Wang
We are all doomed to lose everything. I’ve lost three fingers, one arm, one eye. I’ve lost my family, my childhood home, my native tongue. …
“A Bride” by Michael Howard
It was official: Angie Lash and Marco Di Luca, twenty-one years her senior, were wed.
“When My Ear Fell Off” by Stratos Moustakas & Dora Mezei
When my ear fell off I first thought of the client delegation sitting at the conference room, waiting for the meeting to begin in earnest. …
“As We Know It” by Marco Etheridge
You pause in the center of the footbridge, a silver-bright ribbon running beneath you, gravel paths serpentine under the locust trees that define the banks …
“The Crack Up” by Steve Carr
Morning, a hot wind blowing from the east sent the tall yellow prairie grass bowing in ripples toward the old house. Colin leaned against the …
“The Road to Gold Ridge” by Jennifer Swallow
The photos on the website of the Gold Ridge Inn showed a log structure with a wrap-around porch and a hitching post for the horses …
“The Red Worm” by Isaac Aday
Sam Karrington’s size-six loafers kicked back and forth atop the wooden bench under the train stop awning. The train would be here soon, he thought—no …
“Cattail Confessions” by Hannah Melin
I’ve fallen in love with all of them. How could I not? With their skin so soft I can watch it give way beneath my …
“Clouds” by Adam Kelly Morton
Honey’s Pub is loud with live music, and there’s a full pint of lager in front of me. If I drink it, it’ll be my …
“Tree Song” by Melissa Reynolds
I have stood for over a hundred years in this place, endured the idiots who link hands and try to encompass my bulk, observed the …
“Naked Cake” by Scott Mitchel May
There is something sad about an unfrosted and forgotten about sheet cake — the kind of sheet cake when if finished would be eaten at …
“Spinning the Sensualist” by Michael Grotsky
One lost Saturday night, around the last rays of the summer that never was, Yoshimi and William-James, one of the finer couples in their little …
“Barrow” by Robin Wyatt Dunn
The darkness should be the first clue, like it was not just a memory but an encounter, both in past and present: of the future. …
“Taco Dreams” by William Torphy
Peg had made good on her resolution to leave West Virginia, and here he was in San Francisco, seasonless though it was Spring, sleeping on …
“Nightchild” by Paul Negri
She shone bright in the headlights of Emerson’s car. White dress, white shoes, white ribbon in her hair. A very white little girl walking along …
“So Dark, Up Above” by Emily Ruth Taylor
Sure, no one ever said that people were getting their powers from the rain. Tommy guessed it had something to do with all those big …
“Pink” by Izzy Martens
The small pink tube is pressed into the palm of my right hand. I am flicking the lid with my thumb, finding satisfaction in the …
“Arizona Rattlesnakes” by E.G. Farrelly
“How d’ya s’ppose we git outta this here situation?” “Well, the cars are over there.” “Sure are.” “That’s probably our best bet out of here.” …
“Off the Deep End” by Richard Risemberg
It was the kind of bar that would have had to struggle up several rungs of the social ladder to be considered a dive. Not …
“Romulus” by Charles Rafferty
It wasn’t like that. Our mother suckled us for years in the rank, familiar den. She chewed the deer meat until it was a fine …
“The Night the Billado Block Burned Down” by Elizabeth Gauffreau
Then the Billado Block burned down, and I had nowhere to live. “Well, shit,” I said to the guy standing next to me watching it …
“South of the Nipple” by Paul Negri
It was just beneath the nipple of her heaving right breast. “What’s that?” asked Bordelli. Clarice didn’t seem to hear him. She kept bucking her …
“Stripped” by James la Vigne
Having little to his name when he died, the reading of Henry Fromm’s will went quickly. Nothing surprising or contentious. On paper he never did …
“I guess I never told you about Texas” by Robin Wyatt Dunn
I guess I never told you about Texas, long and sweet in the evening, boiling jelly, about mom’s temperature, stuck in the oven: The best …
“One Day” by Rebekah Ricksecker
6:47 AM The darkness turns gray; the misty fog rests over the water; the honeysuckle perfumes the air as white petals float on the still …
“The cops have Julia” by Robin Wyatt Dunn
I knew already, struck with the phantasm of a dream that I had taken the reins of my life at last. Like a drowning man …
“On Light on Shadow” by L.L. Madrid
The air is thick with a bovine stench. We’re driving eight hundred miles through desert and oil fields to our new home on Dyess Air …
The Missing Brutal Honesty in the Final Walk-Through with the Soon-To-Be-Ex-Tenant by Erika Murdey
Entry Door Yes No Damage to exterior? X Interior? X [The lease says “no nails,” but upon her arrival in December it was …
On Watermelon Street by John Short
It was the upper floor of a solid 1950s style house in Piraeus with heavy ceiling fans and dust-laden blinds obscuring a view of the …
“45th Parallel” by Robin Wyatt Dunn
We will not subside, for there can be no epiphany; we march into the sand for the egrets, hunting them with our knives. No other …
“Ash Lee” by Robin Wyatt Dunn
Come with me, it won’t be far; we have all night, and the seasons with it, in your heart: I’m dying. I’ll tell you about …
“Buddy” by Benjamin Austin
“Pickup for Angelo.” He leaned on the counter. “For who?” “Angelo.” He jerked his chin up—he had been told he mumbled. He had a deep …
“Ice Cream or Moxie” by Kristy Gherlone
In the heat of the summer, back when Willow’s mother slipped in and out of lunacy, sometimes she’d wake up at night to find her …
“Nothingness” by Anne Strand
I’ve been awake since 4 a.m. But that was twenty hours ago, and now we’re here, at the party, and …
“Ship Inside a Bottle” by Charles Rafferty
Her new boyfriend had a ship inside a bottle. You’d ask him how he got it in there, and he’d act like you …
Excerpt From “We Three Kings” by D.M. Rice
D.M. Rice is a non-binary writer from Dallas, TX whose work has been featured in the Aletheia Journal, Sybil, The Bandit Zine, and the anthologies Rec*og*nize, Nameless …
“The Hitchhiker” by Michael T. Smith
It was late enough that she didn’t even feel tired anymore. Clarissa squinted so hard her eyes hurt. She tried see through the fogged-over windshield …
“Icing” by Melissa Bobe
She’d had a cupcake for breakfast every day for the last month. Thick on the icing, more often than not with sprinkles, occasionally filled with …
“Coming Home” by Ray Cicetti
Once there was a man who found a forest in his pocket. When he came home after a day’s work he would take it out. …
“The Confession of the Watcher at the Bell” by K.A. Liedel
The peace inside the giant glass bell is almost always short-lived. Soon the translucent, riblike curves will spark with electric-blue orbs, followed by clouds of …
“This is What We Do Now” by Becky Shirley
You come home, half gallon of milk in one hand, the other snaking around my waist. Head buried in my shoulder, no words, just small …
“A Fairy Tale About War” by Matthew McAyeal
Once upon a time, there were two big kingdoms and two small kingdoms. The two big kingdoms were called Khakia and Doogland. The two small …
“Jigsaw” by Amber West
I was born a human jigsaw puzzle. I emerged from my mother’s womb, not as a whole baby, but in scattered pieces. The doctors worked …
“Truth Conditions” by Natalie Einselen
Tsuki Amai’s wristwatch emitted a soft click, and she tugged gently at her ear to make sure, for the tenth time that day, that she …
“Looking Out From My London Flat” by Kelsey Parrotte
It’s not smoggy like they say it is in London, at least I don’t think so, but the River Thames is filthier than I had …
“The Death of Paul Shephard” by Kristoffer Newsom
They rode together in silence for some time, the old man and the young one. Paul looked out the window, his blue eyes cloudy with …
“To an Alzheimer’s Child” by Shah Tazrian Ashrafi
It’s autumn now. The leaves are carrying quiet dust on their surfaces. Northern winds puff and relieve your skin from the unforgiving sun. Soon there …
“The Watcher” by Jenna Crosier
Every year, from the first I was assigned to the graveyard, I would watch the headstones from my place upon the highest pine tree. My …
“Rocks” by Elena L. Perez
Obsidian, black, but when held up to light it is semi-transparent. Also known as Apache Tears. Roughly circular in shape, about half an inch by …
“Belittle” by Kelsey Parrotte
Yesterday you were five foot ten and today your toes don’t touch the base of the bed. You cocoon yourself deeper into the blankets, stuffing …
“Ventricle” by Amber West
I lost my heart last night. It must have happened in my sleep. I didn’t notice at first, but when I looked in the mirror …
“The Girl with Stars in Her Eyes” by Marina Shugrue
Every morning I look in the mirror and hope for a different reflection. The problem with makeup is that it doesn’t cover every scar. And …
“Stretch” by Sandra White
I hold the moon like a baby in my arms. If I let it go, it will fall. The light of the night will die. …
“The Living Dead” by John Short
I opened my eyes, emerging from a dream but couldn’t remember anything at all. Shame really because I’d always considered dream space a bit like …
“Blood Orange Soda” by Maya Rahman-Rios
Wait until your mother and brother have left the house. Then, call him. Four oh eight, five five five, seven three eight oh. You’ve had …
“In Sartre Ward” by Michael Paul Hogan
To be man means to reach toward being God. Or, if you prefer, man fundamentally is the desire to be God. Jean-Paul Sartre …
“GET A JOB, LOS ANGELES” by Tadeu Bijos
Dude driving, dude driving vast expanses, dude fucking up on the GPS, dude asking for directions, dude getting off on the right off-ramp and hitting the ocean …
“Casualties, or I can’t f*#!ing understand this Ikea Diagram” by Dani Neiley
Hello, everyone! It’s Friday again and we’ve got another extra thing to share. When we were all talking, we realized we’ve all shared some of …
Excerpt from “He’s Gone”
We at The Metaworker are excited to bring you something a little different this Friday. We’ve been given the opportunity to work with Impress Books, …
“Buzz Hunt” by Adam St. Pierre
I don’t know how long we were up on that hillside, just Paul and me. We sat in a shallow trench, bundled up …
“Bathsheba Beckons” by Fred Owens
Tom Blethen faced two fifty foot rows of potatoes. He looked up at the December sky. It had rained, the field was all muddy, and it …