Rick

When I was 10 my father had a breakdown.He stayed home all day,smoked a lot,drank some,and often stared at his extended hand,which visibly tremored.My mother went to work full time,and they argued in the evenings.Eventually,we adapted to our strangely altered lives,but it left its mark.Altho my dad lived to 96,my mom 90,they never spoke of these events,not once.Yet for me the tragedy is that "I" never asked...not once.

norman

seeing just their silhouettes we understood their dance not the vertical one instead the waves on beach romance so their bodies visit stars as much as behind their eyes other worlds embody them who dare to perspire we are full of our fragrance we must release if we are just a feeling taste between each others teeth how will our tongue & cheek replace grace we achieved portend my love for tomorrow we will leave

Patrick F. Suttle

I dreamed in colours vivid gold and acid blue. I woke confused when my life remained in black and white. I longed for those bright colours to melt in my mind. I closed my eyes to embrace sleep with hopes of being attacked by that constant prism of bright lights. On this night sleep did not come and I accepted this existence of grey doldrums cast in black and white. Would sleep prevail? Or does this life offer no reward but the constant diminished paleness that comes when we focus on black and white.

Daniel

Vocabulary

I.
He lies next to her in bed. She says: Did you just say something? He says: Yes, I did, but I forget what it was. They continue to read their books. There is no malice in this exchange.

II.
He lies next to her in bed. She says: Did you just say something? He says: Yes, I did, but you weren’t listening. They continue to read their books. There is a threat of divorce in this exchange.

Alex

“And what of today?” he mused. All now but the same, life’s parade of days slipping into months and years, spilling over innumerable decades. For with the gift of the infinite, something was lost; perhaps the innocent and unknown spontaneity of each new day. He’d seen men become gods, only to be defeated by their greatest enemy of all, Time. Obsession to so many and only a footnote in his own, he decided on tea.

Aaron

I wanted to tell her but I was worried it would ruin the moment. Even with her frail body, the hug was great.
I clenched the ceramic turtle she gave me in May. Its right leg was gone but the ridges in its back were still there.
“Remember? When you move the stick across the ridges it sounds like the turtle is croaking”
“Where’s Pat?”
She wasn’t listening to me. I wanted to tell her but she deserved the ignorance.

Helene

In the village of fiery people
with hair so red
lived the girl with the flaxen hair.
Teases and taunts met not temper
Of the girl with the flaxen hair.

The “Idiot” shielded his ears
from ribald jeers
Heeding the humming
Of the girl with the flaxen hair.

Villagers disremembered
when sighted last the two.
when last did they hear
the murmuring song
Of the girl with the flaxen hair.

Midst flowers colored by dawn
swaying with delicate breeze
Faintly was heard an echoing song
Of the girl wih the flaxen hair.

Henri

A solitary beacon appears, its ruby a blaze of impediment. My chariot reflects the waking sun as I streak towards yet another challenge. Slowing my approach, I realize the true conflict late: trapped! Surrounded by armored strangers, this center holds strong. Cruel fates! Enamored on all sides, my endurance tilts towards empty. A mighty roar from behind unceremoniously tears apart this reality: the light has changed.

Bill

The aliens noticed the Earth, and stopped to see. Disguised as humans, they browsed the craft store. They got the impression that Earthlings were creative and valued beauty for its own sake. This, they thought, was nice. Perhaps humans would make a good addition to the Galactic Civilization. Then they went to a big box store across the street, returned to their spaceship, and sterilized the Earth with a death ray.

phil

“I only lied when it mattered.” She said as she ground the cigarette into the door jamb of our house. It was still snowing and she pulled the black wool hood over her head until I couldn’t see her eyes. White delicate flakes landed and disolved to dark spots on her coat. She shuddered and her body compressed into the smallest possible shape against the cold. I couldn’t say anything. I just watched it all melt.

Andrea

The first week was not what he envisioned. No crying jags, no casseroles brought by well-meaning friends and neighbors. Just a hollowed out sense of displacement, as if the familiar air was now water and he was expected to breathe through gills. Remembering to breathe took up most of his time now. The bottles piled up, and he resented them. Now empty, they were no longer welcome companions. They had the nerve to stay.

Kol

“Tomorrow,” I wrote, “I’ll write a 420 character story. Too bad it is not 421 characters or they would have gotten something superlative.” Now, I prepare to spend a long, cold night thinking of what to write. Then, I ask myself, “Do they mean 420 individual entities, or 420 letters and spaces?” Troubled, I decide that my story will be of a crowd of 421 characters who are upset because their stories cannot be told.

Nicholas

He could feel the warmth trickling down his leg, dripping slowly through his blue corduroy pants and onto bolts that locked his last row desk to the floor. All he'd wanted was to go to the boys room, but Mother Mary had beaten Ronnie with a yardstick that cracked in two. Little Chuckie got his hands slapped with her copper-rimmed ruler because he couldn't read the word Albuquerque. Going to the boys room didn't seem that important. No one seemed to notice anyway.

Susan

Norman was his name. A mean spirited Dauschand whose claim to fame was his lightning speed when you dropped anything on the floor. If this happened when you were in the home where Norman reigned, a cry would go up warning you NOT to reach for the fallen object. This was the protocol for the 14 years Norman ruled. More fingers were saved than lost.

Zachary

Out on the terrace, the downtown skyline was glistening and bright against the sky, an Emerald City whose only guard was lack of belief. He hadn’t had faith until he wanted something, sure, but once he did it became more—a subtle love, a faith in his desire. Money had been like a god whose unseen miracles could be explained away by unseasonable weather. But now he had seen, and they were some marvelous plagues.

Andrew

Splat, paint met canvas with anger, color upon color. Frustration. Streaking his hand across the palette he mashed it into the canvas. Easel teetering. Seething. Sixth decade and his landscapes remain unsold. A few commissioned portraits pay the bills. Turning, he strode across the room and scrubbed his hands in the sink. Staring out, the poplar trembling in the wind. Returning to the canvas he sees it. Raw emotion.

norman

he use to hide her bloody rags now he made flags eventually to see when to call a truss was not only possible yet eminent she wasn't opposed to make-up she wore for his confidence without her symbolically solider pride less he was not against her applying her exercise in reflection meditation yoga him fit between her flexibility his hardness one day waning in battle to win surrender she too would combat age

norman

skydiving her favorite position on cloud sheets her headboard pink azure walls curved into sistine ceiling she would listen to her canary singing nightingale her tea candles flickering aloe stars will sparkle on her moist skin fruit ripe to the touch ivory would enjoy mouthing as intimate could penetrate without breaking and entering she was adsorbed by the present absences sustaining exploration weightless becoming

norman

western sky rusty as terrain she boarded the back muscle train with her frilled parasol later he came rough faced with his oiled gun inserted in premium leather they said nothing to each other as she edged her vision over her spread of cards with other men gambling they could win her stack take the pot with their flush hands who would draw first if one of them was caught cheating with a grin the gunslinger anted up

norman

when all the kings men came all the kings horses were out of breath someone made a sexual joke about humpty his yoke everywhere was not a commodity they could put back to gather intelligence in the matter it was suggested investigation into price fixing come to light since all the little jack horners were running out of filling for their corner pie on wall street the scandal delicious revealed don't miss little peep