Fiction Issue #13: Animals & Health July 24th, 2023 Caramel: An Excerpt by RA DeMarco In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act. ― George Orwell helsea was seventeen years old the morning the news reporter announced Ariana Sutcliffe had disappeared. The woman’s olive-skinned face framed by silky brown hair that fell well past her shoulders flashed on the television screen and caught Chelsea mid-swallow, causing her to spit a mouthful of Cheerios back ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #13: Animals & Health July 24th, 2023 Sage Brush Excursions by Ally Campanozzi Sage Brush Excursions #1: Standing at the Trail Head It’s the first day, sentenced to the outback excursion. We’ll be roughing it, expected to get a grip on life, learn new things, adapt, find personal atonements. The time has come. It’s time to stop wearing maniac queen crowns. Stop spending all this time staring through rearview mirrors. Focus now, look deeper into windshield futures at the desert vacancies overhead. Head ...
Read MoreFiction Issue #13: Animals & Health July 24th, 2023 Help by Leah Rose tella, I swear to God, if you don’t stop tapping that freaking pencil….” “Huh? Oh, sorry.” I was able to sit still for all of about three seconds before starting to fiddle with the mechanical pencil again. Cole sighed, looking up from his biology textbook. “Something on your mind?” “Nope,” I lied, shaking my head. “Okay. Well, whenever you feel like talking about it, I’ll be right ...
Read MoreFiction Issue #13: Animals & Health July 24th, 2023 If Music Be the Food of Love by Alice Ranjan eeta did not know what to do with her hands. She wrapped her arms around her stomach and rocked back and forth. She gripped her chair and then admonished herself for straining her fingers –a risk she should have avoided since she was a cellist. Ultimately, she shielded her face with her hands, obscuring the white ...
Read MoreFiction Issue #13: Animals & Health July 24th, 2023 The King of Stories by Adam Strassberg he king sat upon his throne. He was not a king in the usual sense. He had never led an army. He had never won a battle. He claimed no castles and owned no lands. Neither was he even a king in the metaphorical sense. He was not some king of heaven, or hell, or even rock, sports, shoes or ...
Read MoreFiction Issue #13: Animals & Health July 24th, 2023 Flash Fiction by Elizabeth Spencer Spragins pecial Delivery Fifty-five degrees will be fatal, Mom,” Jeremy pleaded. His knuckles whitened as he gripped the phone and eyed the two-foot snow drifts outside. “I know you’re on duty at the hospital for another eight hours, but I can have Zelda and Artemis ready to go in ten minutes. You could pick us up on your lunch break. Please.” His ...
Read MoreFiction Issue #13: Animals & Health July 24th, 2023 Group by Victoria Costello ight kids, counting Teague, are sitting, or lying on beat up chairs and sofas in the clinic lounge. He doesn’t dare look at any of them above the waist. He can hardly make himself breathe. It’s like facing off against a bunch of fighters in a ring. He knows they’re checking him out and trading smirky looks. Hanging with the devil in ...
Read MoreNonfiction Issue #13: Animals & Health July 24, 2023 Whose Mess? by Elizabeth Jackson awoke on Saturday morning and immediately remembered why I had this particular Saturday morning off. I can’t say that I was looking forward to it. I pulled on some sweats and went to the kitchen where my husband, Mitch, was already up gathering the makings for an omelet. In the middle of the table there was a vase with a ...
Read MoreNonfiction Issue #13: Animals & Health July 24, 2023 Atonement by Andi Brown here’s no water in the woods,” Pat says. “And no blankets neither.” I sit beside her in the hallway, watching the other clients wander around. “There’s no food in the woods,” she tells me. “There are ‘sssssss’.’’ She holds her arm up, wrist bent in the approximation of a snake. “They’ll bite you.” “That sounds scary,” I say. She nods like I get it. ...
Read MoreNonfiction Issue #13: Animals & Health July 24, 2023 Sympathy for the Devil by Mary Mahoney am not suicidal, but my daughter is. Or so she says. Or so she would like to be. Or so she is when she is electric air, the feeling, the flashback. Or so she is when she relives any memory of cruelty. Or so she has been since those fucked up, peer-related, bullying experiences come back, repeat themselves. White hot. ...
Read More