I’m going to omit some of this man’s fuckings and fucks, which will certainly diminish and change the nature of his invective, but I have some hopes of getting this published in a magazine—I might even get my money back—and no editor is going to publish it if every other word is fuck.… More
Signals
FICTION by Cody ShrumFreezing under those blinding stars, walking on a gravel road in the middle of BFE Kansas, dead deer remains all over me, I wonder how my life has come to this moment. Mom had warned me. She’d said, “Be careful with that boy, he could have a dark side to him. Probably does. Most do.”… More
Cigarettes
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Garrett MostowskiMs. Amy didn’t even know why she was sayin all that to our English class. But we knew what she meant by it. At least, I did. She was just feeling happy how her daddy loved her for whatever reason. That was it. And she was trying to tell us about that love and about not getting hooked on any kind of substances, and she was trying to say we can win our battles sometimes, if we keep showin up.… More
Inventory of Annoyance
FICTION by Xairan RayFuck man, I didn’t even have my tobacco. I was about to rawdog this meeting, no phone, no tobacco, though I did have the faint taste of the marijuana edible I ate earlier. This was a problem, see, often I would get too high, because I would take one edible, forget I had taken the edible, and then take another, and this would go on until I had no edibles, because, I would forget I had taken the edible. Rawdog no more, I thought as I entered the meeting.… More
Try
CREATIVE NONFICTION by David P. BarkerWhen you’re battling addiction, they teach you not to share war stories—to not live in those because they feed the worst parts of ourselves. I’ve never walked the twelve steps so it became easier to live in the worst of it than work the shovel to get out of it. It became so easy to hate.… More
A.M. Pigskin
FICTION by Salvatore DifalcoLife is a hollow horse, but riding it hurts. I’ve considered other ways of living, but I’ve grown accustomed to the junk mail. It reminds me that although I’ve been nudged to the margins, I’m still part of the world.… More
A Substitute for Violence
FICTION by Rob PierceHe was cranky because he couldn’t do shit, and he was never one to smile much. He was good at killing men, hated killing time. Where he took pleasure was walking down the sidewalk knowing people he’d never met thought he was a mean old man. Hell, he’d been a mean young one, no reason to change now.… More
Lifetime Drive
FICTION by Josh DaleDeron’s studied to be a used car dealer. Not just any shyster, though. He’s made it his life’s goal to obtain the Ultimate Customer Satisfaction rating by J.D. Power. Someone emits a bubbly fart. The flatulence lingers and the two men sniff, then cough. They’ve known each other long enough and the stakes are too high.… More
Boys in the Hall
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Kristy BellThat morning, we all nodded and chuckled, smug in our assessment that the pilot of that first airplane screwed up. Tragic, but not much different than a navigational error that ran a ship aground. It was unfortunate, certainly, as lives were undoubtedly lost. But heads would roll, and we’d move on.… More
The Throwaways
FICTION by Jean WolfersteigNumbers and names littered the backside of the shade, the only log of the burials in existence. It seemed to cast a shadow that swallowed the light and sucked the air from the room, making it hard to breathe. He located Grace Atkinson’s mother’s gravesite in the exact spot where the bucket truck was parked, the shovel set to gouge the earth and deposit the remains in a hill of dust and bones.… More
Drool Party
FLASH FICTION by Perry GenovesiOne night a year in early July, the men and boys in swimsuits squat at the pool’s ledge to await two lifeguards’ whistles. The chlorine is all they smell, the burbling water is all they hear and—blindfolded—they see only black.… More
