micro fiction

6 days ago2 min read

"Red, Red God" by Linda M. Bayley

The crayons are hard to write with. They catch and drag on the walls. I want the red crayon, red, but it keeps breaking and my hand hurts...

"Missing" & "Urgent Care" by Cheryl Snell

Sep 301 min read

micro fiction

"Missing" & "Urgent Care" by Cheryl Snell

Missing Every night I look at your bed, wrinkled sheets still caught in mid-ripple. The breeze from the cracked-open window billows the...

"You Know Tina's Family's the Reason We Broke Up" by Kristi Ferguson

Sep 302 min read

flash

"You Know Tina's Family's the Reason We Broke Up" by Kristi Ferguson

Before I dated Tina, I assumed everyone hated their family. Isn’t that the reason there’re all those holiday movies? Those...

"Why I Avoid Confession" by Anne Anthony

Sep 32 min read

micro fiction

"Why I Avoid Confession" by Anne Anthony

Because I'm a budding flower, Monsignor tells me. Because I'm ripe with pollen, a flower near bloom, I entice bees. He’s the bee, you...

Sep 32 min read

micro fiction

"Payback" by Laura Leigh Morris

When I complain about peri-menopause—weight gain, hot flashes, dark spots on my face—the doctor insists on a pregnancy test, and I laugh...

"Because we don’t know how to lose" & "Violet" by Eirene Gentle

Aug 183 min read

flash

"Because we don’t know how to lose" & "Violet" by Eirene Gentle

Because we don’t know how to lose Because we don’t know how to lose we lie in bedrooms feet splayed against ice cream tinted walls, pink...

"When You Book Us a Tarot Reading After Your Death" & "Miss Havisham Teaches English" by Hema Nataraju

Aug 182 min read

flash

"When You Book Us a Tarot Reading After Your Death" & "Miss Havisham Teaches English" by Hema Nataraju

When You Book Us a Tarot Reading After Your Death... I show up, you are still my sister after all. You say I’m late, but it’s easy for...

Aug 41 min read

micro fiction

"Like a Virgin" by Kerry Byrne

Under a dayglow sun, you crawl along Witham Way, windows down, glad of the roadworks that slow the traffic as you imagine the Capri...

"Making Music" & "Harp in the Corner" by Karen Pierce Gonzalez

Jul 211 min read

micro fiction

"Making Music" & "Harp in the Corner" by Karen Pierce Gonzalez

Making music He hated losing her. Like his clarinet, she’d felt good in his hands. But when he learned she’d hid his invitation to...

"The Single Parents’ Sunday Cycle" by Lucy Goldring

Jul 211 min read

poetry

"The Single Parents’ Sunday Cycle" by Lucy Goldring

Smile uneasily while being dismayed that they’re all middle-aged Remember, with profound disappointment, that you’re nearly thirty-nine...

Jul 214 min read

flash fiction

"Hurley's House" by M. Rose Seaboldt

“It’s perfect!” Johnny Hurley and Robbie Decker stood in front of a small, rundown house that was surrounded by overgrown weeds and...

"Brown Girl's Guide to Manifest Destiny" by Suma Jayachandar

Jul 212 min read

micro fiction

"Brown Girl's Guide to Manifest Destiny" by Suma Jayachandar

Are you going to ignore my advice? Then, do so at your peril. As a matron, I will dispense some anyway. You might have already known the...

"The Night Linda’s Worries Took Off" by Margo Griffin

Jul 72 min read

micro fiction

"The Night Linda’s Worries Took Off" by Margo Griffin

Shades of blue and purple light reflected off the disco ball, and a raindrop pattern splattered across Linda’s face, drenching her in...

"Suppose Gertrude" by Graham Robert Scott

Jul 72 min read

flash

"Suppose Gertrude" by Graham Robert Scott

Suppose Gertrude, instead of saying yes, answers no. Oh, she thinks it through, in a long silence that go-between Polonius fills with...

Jul 71 min read

micro fiction

"Sunday at the Ocean" by Eliot S. Ku

We drove out to the ocean on a Sunday. A bright, breezy afternoon tainted only with the knowledge that we had to work the next day. We...

"In the Gynecologist’s Waiting Room, Aunt Flo Reads Female Frogs and Dragonflies May Feign Death to Avoid Mating" by Mikki Aronoff

Jun 231 min read

flash

"In the Gynecologist’s Waiting Room, Aunt Flo Reads Female Frogs and Dragonflies May Feign Death to Avoid Mating" by Mikki Aronoff

When Jake’s home randy from trucking and candy, Flo’s amphibious—a moist, round thing. She sticks her skinny limbs out rigid—her rigor...

Jun 231 min read

micro fiction

"Firebird" by Alastair Millar

Nothing quenches the fire in my blood: the way your body moves fans the embers of desire, and your whispered sweetnesses are an...

Jun 91 min read

micro fiction

"Book Box" by Chris Lihou

He built a community book box located at the bottom of the drive. “Take One, Leave One,” said the sign. So, they exchanged books over the...

Jun 91 min read

micro fiction

"Finger envoys" by Kik Lodge

I don’t like the way my wife eats toast. I tell her this because it’s important. I say no rush, babe! Slow down the frantic crunching!...

"Birds on a Bus" & "Spring Training" by Louella Lester

Jun 92 min read

micro fiction

"Birds on a Bus" & "Spring Training" by Louella Lester

Birds on a Bus The guy behind me squawks at his seat mate. "I used to live just over there until my wife tried to knife me and I got put...