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.
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.
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.
CRUSH by Kelsi Lindus
On the white sand, I stand with a man who doesn’t love me and we watch a bald eagle–big as a boy–bent over something bloody.
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
THE SONG IN YOUR HEAD by Curtis Smith
In you, the beating of wings, the ticking of clocks, a heart that’s limped through another day. In you, the swirl of a thousand words you’ve said and ten thousand you haven’t.
WHEN I SEE IT by Adam Peterson
There’s a man with stringy hair talking about sin, but he doesn’t actually commit any. Instead he promises us redemption and tell us which ex-wife we’ll still be married to in heaven.
A HISTORY OF MEN AT SEA by Jack Wildern
Chris said it would be easy. We just had to avoid crashing into the pier when we launched. He liked the sea and I liked getting lost. Taking the boat out to the fort suited us both.