Poppy’s Handshake – by Lawrence Maxwell

He’d shake your hand as though he were pulling a weed.
And when I turned twelve he taught me how to
see through the soiled promises of earthly negotiations.

Square Knot – by Andrew Shaughnessy

If ever there was a day for an invitation not to arrive, that day would have been the day of my grandmother’s funeral.

A Life on Fire – by Lindsey Harrington

Whispered conferences took place while Clarice slept.

“What’s the plan for today?”

Stone Ground – by Jennifer Mariani

All the ways to drink tea were steeped in you: warming the pot as if it were a heart in need of devout attention. The fullness of time required to brew was the patience of good things you taught me to wait for. The tea cozy a relic of the women who raised us; purposeful, […]

My Mother’s Ladder – By Finnian Burnett

My mother is building a ladder. She says she needs to change the bulb in the hallway, the one she has asked my father to change only a dozen times. I stand in the doorway of the garage and listen to her banging and swearing, the thundering bellow of her voice shaking the doorframe.

Soundtrack for a Marriage in Ruins – by Tara Mandarano

The sonic landscape of my living room is both melancholic and magnificent as I sit down to my first COVID Christmas Eve dinner, alone, with just the cats to keep me from face-planting in the gravy.

Boxcar Betty Catches The Westbound – by Leslie Casey

There wasn’t a place could lure you to stay, you said, feet planted,/that big bosom swagger every tramp’s dream. You swore an afterlife/on trains…

The Night Nanny – By Brianne Sommerville

Amelia thought Lola resembled a pig in a blanket, swaddled tightly and nestled in the crux of her arm. Perhaps the appetizer came to mind because she was hungry after nursing her baby.

Victim – by Bonnie Joyce Hamilton

Becoming an adult in a beer bottle is small and limiting…

The Reckoning – by Andrea Harbour

The man is ready. He isn’t going to be caught napping, no siree Bob. His opponent seldom lost a fight, or so he had heard, but tonight Ted, as he prefers to be called, is confident everything needed to win is at hand. He has whiskey, to keep his insides warm, but not too much, […]