I last touched your skin six weeks ago. Except… I didn’t really. That skin I touched you with has been shed. This body has never really touched you. That moment is gone and it could only ever have been kept alive by renewal, by touching you again. And I can’t. You’ve slipped through my fingers forever.… more
Tag Archives: Love
Art School
FICTION by Alex MillerJoan looked different in the dark. Her shadow-self manifested savagery and lust. Neal imagined her as queen of the demon army, feeding off the dark energy generated by the adoration of her legions.… more
Waiting For the Train
FICTION by Maddy KayHow did people just say things to each other about love like it was normal? Like they weren’t opening a giant gaping wound in themselves for someone else to kick apart even further? What did any of it mean anyways? What made people loveable and normal—two things he never equated himself with?… more
more secret wars
FICTION by tony rauchI thought maybe they were canceling operations. Or maybe terminating my contract. For good this time. Real good. Maybe they wanted to do it in public, make a big show of it. I’d rather they handle these matters in private, in some musty old brick warehouse somewhere, in some back alley, on a secret plane to nowheresville, maybe tossing my body out over a swamp. There is a dignity to that, a flair to it.… more
Recalibrate
FICTION by Veronica KlashWhen the satellite was young, it thought only of the way bluegreen oceans slid against sandy brown shores and of how river arteries sliced through dense forest sheen like a lizard darting in haphazard lines though, of course, the satellite had never seen a lizard but it had seen life.… more
Office Romance
FICTION by Thomas KealyI fell in love with an office block in March 1987. It was a slow romance. She didn’t reveal her secrets to me until long after we’d gotten to know each other.… more
A Loss of Appetite
FICTION by Angelica WilliamsScanning my panicked eyes around the area, I finally spot them—two shadows taking complementing footsteps underneath the moonlight. They’re walking along the street and away from the restaurant, away from me. Her fingers cling at his bicep and he stares down at her like she’d vanish if he dared to blink. Every single muscle in my body—including my heart—turns to stone.… more
Two Stories
FICTION by John A. McDermottThere was nothing to slide off her finger. No reason to reach out to Toby’s empty hand, turn it up, and set something in the middle of his warm palm. Nothing gleamed in the dim winter light. The ring was on a baggage cart, on the tarmac beyond the window, packed in Toby’s suitcase. But she knew it was coming.… more
Long Ago
FICTION by Charles Dodd WhiteGreta March brought Evan up for one last tryst. Years had passed since they’d seen one another. Now everything was different. It wasn’t quite the end yet, but she was beginning to betray a deeper degree of illness—a general thinning of figure, feature, and voice. She wanted to see the lake house alone this last time.… more
Two Stories
FICTION by Gary PercesepeIn which we remember Chuck Kinder with madcap glee. Hey Honeymooners!… more
