OUR LADY COMFORTER OF THE AFFLICTED by Diana Kole
I watched a moth crawl toward me on the concrete. One of its wings was damaged; I had a strong impulse to crush it with my boot.
THE SHARKS TOOK THE REST by Dana Diehl
Killing a shark is always personal. The shark ate your wife. The shark ate your son.
OLD ENOUGH by Isabelle Hughes
There hadn’t been this much excitement since the boys came home from war with their uniforms and their little triangular hats. They’d been shipped off again.
GOOD LIGHT by Chris Ames
I pull up hard and dredge out a congealed braid of hair the length of an arm. Horrified, I keep pulling and it just keeps coming.
ERASE THE LINE by Jason W. McGlone
My mother is bursting at the seams and I am watching her stitching begin to give.
SKINK by aureleo sans
For now he made his home in men. Or rather, for a time, they lodged in him while he saved up seed money.
ONE EVENING IN APRIL AS A COLD FRONT COMES IN by Christopher Mohar
For one heartbeat, I wanted it to be true. I wanted to see my own father facedown on the tile, spattered in his own blood.
EPSILON & CLOSTROMONIA by Shy Watson
Clostromonia was beautiful. She was big-breasted and a fine cook. Epsilon’s fellow noblemen regularly begged for slices of her bimbleberry pie. “Ay, Epsilon,” they’d say, “I’m going to snatch the pie from your maiden’s windowsill along with the big-breasted beauty who made it!” In these moments, Epsilon felt proud.
ÔM by Lily Thu Fierro
2:00 A.M. Tonight’s crowd is mostly gone. Good tips. No grabs. I did alright.
CARMEN GOING UP by Sara Torres-Albert
When the man from 10C did not say hello to Carmen in the elevator, it barely bothered her at all; she was decorated to her chin with packages—housewarming gifts from one friend or another—and probably looked too compromised for conversation