flash 6/14

Jul 23, 20234 min read

"Bad Donna" by Sarah Holloway

Bad Donna calls me, as she does each year, to sing-song her signature ditty, “hey, hey, it’s the first of May! Outdoor fucking begins...

Jul 23, 20231 min read

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"The Question" by Virginia Foley

Brian is handsome under moonlight: black shirt, grey jacket and peppered hair. My husband and Brian’s wife have stepped away from the...

Jul 23, 20232 min read

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"Blighted" by Melanie Maggard

We’re digging up weeds in the garden. Skinny stalks with curly white roots rain dirt onto parched earth as we pluck and pull. We’ve been...

"Confirmation Bias" & "Whale Rider" by Martha Lane

Jul 23, 20234 min read

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"Confirmation Bias" & "Whale Rider" by Martha Lane

Confirmation Bias CW: Infertility Every fucker’s pregnant. Every single one. You follow a parade of swollen bellies, sashaying from side...

"There Was a Ghost in the Attic, but I Never Told You" by Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos

Jul 23, 20232 min read

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"There Was a Ghost in the Attic, but I Never Told You" by Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos

I dream of your house often. Musky, earthy mold tickles my nostrils as I climb the stairs from the garage; gradient gray speckles on the...

Jul 9, 20232 min read

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"Deferred" by Abigail Myers

Do you want to come in? * Robert, this is Fabiane calling from the Blood Center. Thank you for giving the gift of life with us. We are...

Jul 9, 20234 min read

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"I Need You So" by Gina Harlow

On a placid, still night, we see Brooke awaken to the chime of the security camera, and we feel it pluck a chord in her, like a seventh...

"True or False: Because of the Time You Spend Caring for Your Mother…" By Joanna Theiss

Jul 9, 20232 min read

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"True or False: Because of the Time You Spend Caring for Your Mother…" By Joanna Theiss

True or False: Because of the Time You Spend Caring for Your Mother, You Don’t Have Time for Yourself The time you planned to meet your...

Jul 9, 20232 min read

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"Consider The Moon" by Aimee Truchan

I want to know more about the moon. It never occurred to me that I would see it today - in the morning - or that I would be up before the...

"Same Old Story" & "Why You Should Never Read Women’s Magazines to Find Love…" by Amy Marques

Jul 9, 20232 min read

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"Same Old Story" & "Why You Should Never Read Women’s Magazines to Find Love…" by Amy Marques

Same Old Story She hadn’t been looking for love. That’s what everyone says, she knows. But really, she hadn’t. She had side-stepped love....

Jul 9, 20234 min read

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"Become Her Too" by Nayt Rundquist

CW: violence She’s fuzzy. She might shatter into her pieces—a Lego spaceship bouncing down every stair. She’s buzzing like something bad...

"GET RID OF FAT FAST NOT A FAD DIET" by Achi Mishra

Jun 25, 20232 min read

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"GET RID OF FAT FAST NOT A FAD DIET" by Achi Mishra

CW: Self-harm They bought tickets for India over the summer and the first thing she did was weigh herself. She looked at the number on...

"Altered Form of Matter" by Andrea Damic

Jun 25, 20232 min read

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"Altered Form of Matter" by Andrea Damic

Have you noticed how the skin on your elbows changes as you get older? You haven’t until just the other day. You have penciled this in...

Jun 25, 20232 min read

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"The Fish House" by Suzanne Hicks

It always smelled like there was oil bubbling in the frying pan at the lake cabin. In the mornings, the smell of eggs and bacon mingled...

"Somewhere They Worship Fruit" by Michelle Reale

Jun 25, 20232 min read

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"Somewhere They Worship Fruit" by Michelle Reale

There were prickly pears everywhere. They nested in baskets and bowls were tucked into bureau drawers, in the glove compartments of cars,...

"Secrets I Keep From My Husband" by Tejaswinee Roychowdhury

Jun 25, 20234 min read

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"Secrets I Keep From My Husband" by Tejaswinee Roychowdhury

Timir likes being the little spoon and I like burying my face in his thick tousled curls; jet black like the darkness in his name....

"The Footman Takes You Aside Prior to Your Audience with The Dairy Queen" by Mikki Aronoff

Jun 25, 20231 min read

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"The Footman Takes You Aside Prior to Your Audience with The Dairy Queen" by Mikki Aronoff

The Dairy Queen pumps her cows’ teats like she milks the truth and mines for lies, plies her subjects with the...

Jun 25, 20233 min read

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"Easy Street" by Austin Treat

Mary, Mother of God, All she wanted from Man, her second husband, was honesty, “hot coal white lies burn faster than gasoline.” Without...

"With apologies, from Furnace Creek" by Kirsti MacKenzie

Jun 11, 20231 min read

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"With apologies, from Furnace Creek" by Kirsti MacKenzie

Could you forgive me if I told you the air was warm as my skin, that there is no sound in the desert but your own shaking breath, that...

Jun 11, 20234 min read

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"Mimesis" by Noor Us Sabah Tauqeer

Jahanara stood sentry outside a place she had never visited. A place she had never had reason enough to visit. A bank. In her browned...