Memories on the Riverside People leave, Joaquin thought as he gazed at the river. His mother’s petition had just been approved, and it wouldn’t take long bef...

The Things We Do For Silence It’s as if the incessant buzzing of Nova’s purifier makes the air murkier, not cleaner. The room is filled to the brim with part...

Mary’s Walk In her final hour Mary, resting in her bedchambers and dying of uterine cancer she had thought to be a baby, found herself on a long beach. The s...

Another World Maman's brittle white hair drifted on the pillow like dove wings as she said, "Poupee, you should go eat something. Or sleep." She said it like...

It's Different Here Josephine swayed anxiously from side to side. A cheap leather purse hung from her shoulder, stuffed with savory pulutan and brightly colo...

Interplanetary It is easy to lose track of space and time at Marie’s apartment. By midnight, only blacklights and the glowing carb of a bong light the livin...

Evolutionary strategies Fariah started taking her lunch outside onto the narrow concrete balcony, unable to chew her parathas while watching Kate gnaw on a s...

Sea Sick Rosalie had been having a reasonably fine day before her four-year-old daughter vomited in her lap. Rosalie had suggested to Anatole that they visit...

Rebirth in Yellow Have you ever watched how, in early September, the leaves turn yellow? I used to think it was an early autumn, a gift. But a friend told me...

Birthday Flowers For Mom “Do angels have a birthday?” Naamah asks while braiding her thick sable hair in bed. Satan pauses, frowning. He thinks of many thing...

Quality of Life Andy hates his job. He hates that his coworkers, supposedly holders of computer science degrees, fail to write the most basic of Python scrip...

“I love that. LOL” “I love that. LOL,” I type with the pads of my fingertips until my body is thrown to the passenger side of my car and my head shatters the...

tw: sensitive content, vulgar language Provincial Town Taxi Rank They came out of the shadows of a side street, through the swathes of abandoned chip wrapper...

Through the Dark Woods I have always related to Faust, even when someone can look at him and tell he's an idiot. Why drink in the nectar of words, inhaling y...

(Inspired by “Café Terrace at Night” by Vincent Van Gogh) It’s late, and I’ve watched the street fill with that honey-moonshine light, painted across the sky...

Transgression When out-of-town children ask my gender, I tell them I’m a witch. –Charlie Bondhus 2013 If they had any identity at all, it was witch; their fe...

Andromeda She found sea monsters to be kinder when her mother and father anchored her to the cliff with chains—her body bowed and strung, a painted figurehea...

Ghosts Anatole set his pen down. He had expected the baby to quiet once Rosalie went to him, but nothing of the sort happened. After a few minutes, Anatole s...

As Simple As Flowers "Do you have the time?" Lina looked up from her salad and book to see her colleague standing over her left shoulder. "Sure." She reached...

Temptation When they went past the palace portcullis, like Orpheus, Persephone looked back. "Somehow, I don't think a pomegranate tart will appease a giant, ...