A Story of Bee
A Story of Bee By Robert Cleversy Her name was Beetrice, Beetrice Rose Macintosh. First, before you correct me, her name is spelled Beetrice but is pronounced Beatrice. Her mother liked bees and decided to name her that way. Beetrice will be the first to tell you that her mother was a loon. That’s the second thing I need to tell you, Beetrice can be pretty assertive when it comes to speaking her mind. I first met Bee in the summer of 2006. I was having a tough year. My wife left me after six years of marriage. One day I ...
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January 21, 2010Bubbles
BUBBLES A short story of 1,499 words by Heidi Hirner BYLINE: Bubbles - a cheerful blonde secretary - figures out a way to cheer up her Stock-broker boss who is super-grumpy due to the Economic Recession. In spite of the fact that she was seated in front of a Work computer, Bubbles Buzansky often spent her time attending to non-work related emails, the kind of personal emails that the company - in its procedures and policies document - officially frowned upon. Bubbles did feel a minor amount of guilt about these transgressions, and would occasionally furtively scan the office, ...
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January 21, 2010The Love of My Life
The Love of My Life By FR Jameson In life she only came to me once, in death she visits every single night. She touches me, holds me, kisses me – and I dread every second of it. ...
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January 21, 2010Serious Addicts Only
Serious Addicts Only By Timothy A. Boling "Hi, I'm Nick and I'm an addict." "Welcome, Nick!" the group said in unison. I took a deep breath and began. "This's my first time attending Narcotics Anonymous, and I'm not real sure what to say." I looked around the table. There were twelve of us, myself and my wife Laurie included. Each person at the table took turns talking about how drugs took control of their lives, and how they recovered from hitting rock-bottom. Now it was my turn. "I've been clean ...
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January 21, 2010The Dinner Party
The Dinner Party By Joan Kaplan Tonight’s gathering would be the ninth in a series of twelve Saturday night dinner parties spanning the three-month holiday summer season. Invitations to these dinners, which began promptly at seven-thirty and concluded just as promptly at ten-thirty, were treasured, envied, guarded jealously. Women orchestrated clever but transparent opportunities to ingratiate themselves with the host or hostess in an effort to qualify as potential guests. Men feigned indifference, but worried that important business deals could be born, nurtured or consummated in their absence. Receiving the rare raised-gilt-edged note card with the invented family crest requesting their presence ...
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January 21, 2010The Painter’s Mantle
The Painter’s Mantle By Nayanathara Whenever I get time, I do pen a few lines of poetry or don the painter’s mantle, Not a mere hobby or an idle woman’s pastime – But an exploration of my long-lost identity, an honest expression of my thoughts, an aesthetic unravelling of my past, present and future. Quite often, I do spend a considerable time pondering over my life’s incorrigible patterns – Its sudden undulations, its sloppy curves, mountainous terrains, gargantuan crevices and gorges, its stupendous waterfalls… After having thought long and hard, I finally wield my long, broad brush and palette of cool, placid colours. In a span of few hours, a painting ...
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January 21, 2010Pathetic Sympathy
Pathetic Sympathy By Marc Jan There is a symphony renowned in the world for being candid and in complete cadence, known as La symphony du Soleil - Orchestra of a loosely known truth, of loosely lucid use. The crowds hail it as sweet, seemingly oblivious to any flaw it may have, segued unto the smooth outlines of life - a paper sail-boat navigating the imagination of description itself, blown by desire for beauty. Wrist watches are taken and returned at the entrance; even the slight dissonance of time's tick disrupts the fluidity of music and the colour that permeates from it, creating chaos where there should be only beauty. Delectable elegance, voluptuous reverence, a mind-bending resonance veneering timeless bounds - a ...
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January 21, 2010Fiberglass Dinosaurs
Fiberglass Dinosaurs By Karl Koweski The frozen monstrosities hulk in the Tennessee woods like junkyard Camaros. It’s the prehistoric world as envisioned by Dr. Seuss. red dinosaur blue dinosaur one dinosaur two dinosaurs Fiberglass dinosaurs languish in the mid July heat. Giant toy reptiles consort regardless of Mesozoic period. Deep time is an illusion in the reality of the moment. My family and I stand in the shadow of a forty foot tall Tyrannosaurus Rex shellacked into PBS subjugation. My wife views Dinosaur World as a chance to exercise her legs after a four hour drive. My daughter sees it as another experience to relate to her grade school friends. For me its another wasted fifty dollars, another bead on a vacational string of wasted fifty dollars. My three-year-old son sees a ...
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January 21, 2010Words Between Us
Words Between us By Ivana Plucinski Words between us Are not the breathing wind that hides our footprints, Not waves that fall on any shore Nor conquest, nor bitterness of defeats This lexis of intuitive wing Sets course by star In images of coming home And echoes of understanding, The matter of life may weigh heavy In the mass of memory And by inertia or momentum spin Might resist new fields of being, Content with virtual force of wishful influence, Looking into mirrors of time Where orbits of the planets Make ages in the mind. Words between us Fly from the ashes, make new fire New lust for life real energy, Attracted ...
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January 21, 2010Untitled
Untitled By Micaela Gardner I was just a little dot Sat lonesome on a page. I did my job; ended a sentence Earned minimum wage. But when I saw you across the line I knew I'd finally be whole when We two dots came together: We made ourselves a colon. We had our baby daughter: A beautiful little dash. Straight as an arrow yet On occasion a bit rash. Sometimes--not always--she was abrupt And would interrupt and scoff At her absent-minded brother, Ellipses Who'd often trail off... One thing I've learned about good parentheses That endears, organizes, and amazes Is how carefully they tuck them in at night (Their little fragments and phrases). Love is a misplaced comma It trips, you, up, like this And causes the eternal pauses Before an unsure kiss. There ...
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January 21, 2010