Cicada Summer by Elizabeth Brown
John was pleased that the woman sat next to him on the commuter train, even though it was the only open seat. She could have stood in the vestibule, he…
Fallow Ground
South for the Winter By Rebecca Kane
Warmth across her wings, waves of salty sea beneath, stretches of sandy beaches. She flew, drifting upon a drain of current, swirling down, merry-go-round. Sweet freedom. Then, the piercing whistle…
Fallow Ground
Two at the Zoo by Terry Sanville
Jack and Lauren stared into the compound that held the spider monkeys. “Do you know who that one reminds me of?” Jack pointed to the queen chattering non-stop. Lauren scowled…
Fallow Ground
The Notary by Chip Jett
Not long after I went into the tire business, I bought an inflatable werewolf and put it on top of my store. I didn’t get it to scare off intruders…
Fallow Ground
Forty-Four Dollars by Gene Goldfarb
It was Spring 1959, and I lay there on the living room couch with my measles to keep me company. Meanwhile, “Come Softly to Me” by the Fleetwoods, hypnotized me…
Fallow Ground
The Painter’s Darlings by William Hunt
“You’re sure?” Dr. Kober asked, his pencil hovering above the pad like a honey bee over a flower. “Of course, I’m sure!” Cecil answered. “Do you have cotton in your…
Fallow Ground
Fan Base by Trisha McKee
The thunderous applause reverberated in her head long after Ashley had left the stage. She stood and walked around the makeshift dressing room; the white sheets hung to hide the…
Fallow Ground
Quarter-Life Crisis by Jesse Thompson
I watched as Jimmy pulled up in his beat-up blue sedan at noon. The street was quiet, and the slam of his driver-side door echoed up to my apartment. Jimmy…
Fallow Ground
The Warning by Jesse Thompson
Dad liked to drink. It took about half a case of beer to do the trick. But on that night, the trick turned fatal. I knew drinking would do him…
Fallow Ground
Infatuation by Jason Sibert
Chuck Gowers showed up for another day at work at the Corvus Coffee Roasters. He walked in an hour after opening, wondering if she would be there. “Hello, Chuck,” said…
Fallow Ground
The Tree Stump by Bruce Levine
It was a torrential rain. Harder than Alex and Corey ever remembered. And it didn’t stop all day and into the night. There was no wind, no lightning, no thunder,…
Fallow Ground
But Wait! There’s More! by Rebecca Linam
“But it was Jeff’s idea!” my best friend Thomas always pointed out. I say it was Garrison Keillor’s fault the whole mess got started, or maybe Mrs. Pringle’s. Mrs. Pringle…
Fallow Ground
FOR YOU BY MARGARET KARMAZIN
For some time now, Dr. Hugh Mandara had accepted his life as it was and managed to find contentment in what he considered mature, even philosophical ways. There was the…
Fallow Ground
BLOODLINE BY ALAN MEYROWITZ
Helen watched from her kitchen window as the young man approached. He carried a plate loosely covered by a napkin. She dried her hands with a small towel that she…
Fallow Ground
Innocent by David Rogers
If I say I was innocent of the crime for which I was convicted and sentenced, you might perhaps be more readily persuaded, if not to excuse my subsequent actions,…
Fallow Ground
A Reflection on Nature: The Arve in Summer by Michael Smith
Better to understand a river By understanding how I understand a river I must step back from the bank of thought And let it flow It’s not a cross or…
Fallow Ground
Lie on Your Stomach on The Grass by Jonathan Bracker
The solid earth has never yet complained. There is only the slight scrape Of the accommodating grass Adjusting around your body its bent blades. Impossible ever to get close enough!…
Fallow Ground
Paper Carrier by James B. Nicola
I was a paper carrier and used to hear her speak when I rang to collect from her every other week. I’d see her on those afternoons dressed up exquisitely.…
Fallow Ground
He was a Good by James B. Nicola
He was a good good little boy From break of dawn till time for bed: His father’s pride, his mother’s joy, Immaculately bred. He never lost his temper, was As…
Fallow Ground
My Mother’s Pink Bloomers by Milton Ehrlich
In the days before washing machines, Mother kept our clothes scrubbed wash-board clean, hung up on a line in size places—bloomers led the way. When I was a kid, I…
Fallow Ground
Ode to Ruairi by JR Vork
If I could swim The pool Of tears That our sun Let out to dry Or hear a wind Thru her…sail Deep into The night I would measure Each wild…
Fallow Ground
Sonnet from A Nightmare by Dennis Gilliam
What is this dark dream that is cast in gloom? What ominous, baneful face floats in air, Carrying grim, a foreboding of doom? See the dire eyes how they glow…
Fallow Ground
Lines from A Madman’s Diary by Dennis Gilliam
Suddenly, he appeared from my ceiling, The turbaned Arab smoking a hookah, Sitting on his own cloud of smoke Like a djinn. Al-Qaeda decapitated him he said. The gnome at…
Fallow Ground
Déjà vu by Dennis Gilliam
This is how it always feels. I have been here before. The door is still closed Time elapses in seconds. The door is not closed. The wood is not splintered.…
Fallow Ground
Midwest Sunset by John Dorroh
I wait for you, my darling sky. I wait for you to pull out your palette, inviting the world to stop breathing just for a moment, to look up and…
Empty Silos
The Old Rag Picker Man by Charles Mercer
Every place has one. Why should Inwood be any different? He is only spoken about in whispers. There, see, in the shadows of that darkened corner. Yes, that’s him. The…
Empty Silos
The Kindness of Strangers by Sarah D’Stair
The incision had been hurting all day. She imagined the bloody slice to the top of her foot, the scalpel precise, the foot orange for some reason she knows is…
Empty Silos
The Big Bang Theory by Bill DeArmond
It was quite by accident that I discovered what might be the harbinger of the end of time. As yet I haven’t been able to do anything about it other…
Empty Silos
Slow Country by Che Pieper
You are in Slow Country now. Agonizingly, frustratingly, overbearingly Slow Country. Country so slow it buzzes, like bees on a summer day so hot there might not be any bees,…
Empty Silos
The Mask Maker by Stephen P. Jackson
Ambrosia Woolf was a gifted maker of masks. She picked up the skill when she was eighteen while working on an ocean liner called the Namaste . A puppeteer by…
Empty Silos
Tunnels by K.B. Woods
“Can’t swim.” Mark breaks another glow stick and puts it into his backpack. “Seriously?” Kara crosses her arms and leans against the side of the ditch, starring in shock at…
Empty Silos
The Consultant by A. Poythress
May looks up from the pale-yellow flyer in her hand to the non-descript building in front of her. There’s no sign hanging anywhere saying what’s inside. It’s just a tidy,…
Empty Silos
The Dare by Suzanne Cottrell
The cemetery caper began as a dare. Upper-class students dared freshmen to pick up a souvenir rock and take a selfie in front of a tombstone as a rite of…
Empty Silos
An Inwood Horror by Alan Meyrowitz
Through his bedroom window, Hank had been watching the UFO for about twenty minutes as it moved in what seemed a random path across the night sky. It was a…
Empty Silos
The Question by Bruce Levine
Margo couldn’t help wondering why one of her favorite television channels had suddenly begun a countdown to Christmas. She loved Christmas as much as anyone, but it was April sixth,…
Empty Silos
Be Kind, Rewrap by David Starnes
The ghosts in this town aren’t much for conversation. If they stop, it’s not for long, not long enough to tell me if they’ve seen Momma. The need to find…
Empty Silos
Cornfield by Veronica McDonald
“Well, there was that one time, of course,” Fran Lewis lowered her voice, but her eyes sparkled as the memory floated to the surface, bubbling like the champagne clasped in…
Empty Silos
The Kid and the Poet by Greg Stidham
I The wooden leg of the straight-backed chair groaned as the boy scooted it over the hardwood floor, a few inches closer to the bed. The room was dim, with…
Empty Silos
Midnight Dogs by Chip Jett
The little Yorkie dog wandered onto Andy Rice’s property on the last day of post planning. Andy had arrived home, alone, fixed himself a bite to eat, then settled into…
Empty Silos
The Face in the Portrait by Clark Zlotchew
The pit bull’s bark sounded as though it blasted its way out of a bull horn, each bark making the postman flinch. In between barks it lunged at the postman,…
Empty Silos
Sunfish by Jeffrey Penn May
“When you were a tadpole, and I was a fish, In the Paleozoic time, And side by side in the ebbing tide We sprawled through the ooze and slime.” ~…
Fiction
Enderly, Come by Ruth Andrews
Enderly, Come ~The Church Secretary~ Her Indulgency ran from five in the morning to whenever Hank got up. It was her only opportunity to do what she wanted, and she…
Fiction
I Am Not Lazy by Terry Sanville
I Am Not Lazy “Hey, Mom, where did you find that?” Jennifer pointed to a framed piece of embroidery hanging on the dining room wall. Kathleen stopped setting the table…
Fiction
Between the Trees by Gabriel Sage
and then abruptly lurched to a stop as if the driver tried shifting the gear into park before he put his foot completely on the brake. The door flung open…
Fiction
Campfire Stories by Katie Strine
Campfire Stories I asked him to tell me ghost stories, haunted tales with so much falsity they became a novelty, continually passed from one friend to one fire to another…
Fiction
Life by David Novak
Life “It don’t feel right, Warden. It just don’t feel right at all. Not one bit.” There was a stench in the air. A new stench, that is. A stench…
Fiction
Who She Was Remains by Ken Leland
en, already knows the loss I feel, and knowing, she is hurt and a little angry with me. Still, we agree it’s been far too long since I traveled home.…
Fiction
A Siren in the Rain by M. C. Kaske
So, there I stood, alone on a suburban street corner not far from the empty soccer field. The early October evening was marked with the welcoming scent of autumn decay,…
Fiction
Double Heaven by Jane McAdams
Double Heaven The dominoes were slick and black. They were professional gaming equipment, serviceable in color, their red and white spots aligned martially, in rows that suggested a deeper than…
Fiction
Silence of the Cats by Robert Allen Lupton
his parole officer as soon as he stepped off the bus from prison. He committed a burglary less than an hour after he registered at the halfway house where he’d…
Fiction
Promises to Keep by Chanacee Ruth-Killgore
Promises to Keep I stood out on the patio in the crisp morning air and whistled for my dogs, Harlow and Hunter. The trees whistled back, a mocking of my…
Fiction
Bury ‘Em Deep by Tiffany Michelle Brown
Bury ‘Em Deep Fire-colored leaves crackle beneath my steel-toes as I follow Charlie to the back of his pickup. A gust of wind blows up the corner of the blue…
Fiction
Daytona by LaRue Cook
Daytona Sam stood on the concrete porch of his ex-wife’s trailer in Inwood Indiana, doing his best to fill the doorway. “Your daddy’s here,” Helen screamed into the dim light.…
Fiction
The GPS of Horror by Anita G. Gorman
The GPS of Horror Miranda stopped in front of the resale shop and looked in the window. So much debris, so much junk, so much stuff that people didn’t want…
Fiction
Helen Got the Day Shift by John Wolf
the north entrance of town says: MARMONT, FROM OURS TO YOURS! The lake underneath the bubble letters looks like Marmont, the family playing on the beach doesn’t look like anyone…
Fiction
The Ride Home by Thomas Cannon
The Ride Home Cleo stepped out of the town hall meeting. All of his buddies were inside giving their testimony. Not that it was anything more than standing up and…
Fiction
The Little Girl Who is Really a Giraffe by Susan Woodring
ster died for the first time—cause unknown—my mother invited my great aunt Freda to come and live with us. Her flight from Houston was delayed, so she just met us…
Fiction
The Costa Rican Dagger by Clark Zlotchew
write this report—some will no doubt call it a confession—as I sit in this cell awaiting my fate. I put this on paper so that people—including my wife—will understand my…
Fiction
Fractured by Suzanne Cottrell
The clouds had been building all afternoon. The smell of rain wafted through the muggy, July night. Each gust of wind rattled the windows. Moonlight no longer filtered through the…
Fiction
Bedtime Snack by Mike Murphy
The sky turned dark as they arrived. The three men, their moving company truck parked behind them, looked up at the old brick house on Hawthorn Road – their last…
Fiction
The Beckoning Woods by R.A. Goli
The road stretched out in front of Heath like an unending black serpent. He hated this byway. It gave him the creeps. Gnarled and twisted trees lined the road, their…
Fiction
The Candle by Martin Keaveney
Scraps of burnt paper rise around us into the darkness. The bright air whistles, shriller, then softer. I drag the case behind Mother, a silhouette carrying two bags. Our bare…
Fiction
The Phantom at the Bottom of the Well by Bill DeArmond
“Hello—o?” Bailey leaned over the rim of the well, waiting for the echo to fade away. Sometimes it took the spirit two or three calls before it awakened. “Hello—o?” A…
Fiction
Mount Rose Wood by Vincent Salvati
Patrolman DiNizzio sat in his car next to the pay phone, as he did most nights, discussing his next rendezvous with his girlfriend (something Mrs. DiNizzio didn’t know anything about)…
Fiction
The Everything Place by John Riebow
The sun’s pale reflection on the stillness of the mist-laden water was cut, unfolded, folded, and re-laid by the canoe’s passing. The air was crisp and light, not unlike an…
Fiction
Lizard Boy by Emily Laubham
For hours, Edgar Polrattle, known to fellow classmates and crueler town-folk as the Lizard Boy, wandered down the streets of Yokemile, Florida, shrinking away from the voices in his head.…
Fiction
What the River Claims by Cyn Bermudez
The dead numbered in the hundreds. The current count loomed in red on a large interchangeable sign on the side of the highway: two hundred seventy-five. “Ay nako,” her mom…
Fiction
Grow Fonder by Kristofer Velasquez
A burst of muffled laughter erupted from the back of Izzy Brice’s 8th period biology class. A small cluster of boys led by Lino Forde had been choking on stifled…
Fiction
Medical Discharge by Gustavo Bondoni
The movers, as usual, were throwing expensive furniture around with reckless abandon, while Martin attempted frantically to identify which idiotic painter had decided that the living room would look good…
Fiction
Hallowed Ground by D. Leroy
I knew it was a mistake the moment we stopped digging near Hawthorn Road. We all mingled in the yard, gawking at what used to be a clump of trees.…
Fiction
ErrBNB by Bart Bergfeld
Ringing the landlord would solve the lost key issue, but doing so was unthinkable. My stay violated the No Subletting rule, a crime that, if committed once more, would evict…
Fiction
Through the Veil by Thomas Elson
Katherine was born in an isolated section of an isolated state where creeks were called rivers and foothills called mountains, where the letter “r” held its rightful position in the…
Fiction
If Only by David LeGere
The sun, a fierce sliver of yellow and orange expanding on the horizon, rose like a pad of butter melting on my cakes, as my grandmother would’ve said. In this…
Fiction
Love Potion by Les Bohem
Cleo has been tending bar here at the Eddy for almost a year. Tending bar, that cheapens it, debases it—she’s a mixologist. Baristas, mixologists, neighborhood butchers…the ‘new local’…take pride in…
Fiction
The Gospel of Chloride by Jennifer Leeper
The town was as bare as a pauper’s cupboard. It was perfect. Rufus would fill it with its own history. The town of Chloride, New Mexico had been reduced to…
Fiction
The Bike Man by Helen Laser
I left the college radio station to find that my bike was gone. My jacket was pulled closed, my head swimming with preoccupations, and my chest was strung tight with…
Fiction
Hallowed Eve by Rebekah Goemaat
Rachel, 1984 “Betsy and Melvin can’t keep her away from him,” Grandma says to Aunt Lettie, as they stand at the counter in Grandma’s kitchen, chopping up the last of…
Fiction
Martians by Christopher Acker
One thing is for sure—the town knows Martians. You can’t step anywhere without trampling over one. The first Martian welcomed us yesterday morning from a billboard next to our hotel.…
Fiction
The Queen of Trees by Carol Jones
I finished my giant bowl of Lucky Charms before the trucks pulled up. A dozen men in orange hardhats assembled on the front lawn. They had all come to take…
Fiction
Copilot by J. David Liss
The Cessna 172 reached its flight path at 5,000 feet. Looking down, Franklin felt the height grip at his balls like a woman with chilly hands, and he knew he’d…
Fiction
Invisible Spirit by Patricia Rossi
If only she could recognize me, she would realize how truly near I am. Her wailing sobs silence my spiritual presence I am… the whistling wind the rustling leaves the…
Fiction
Leaving Us by Ken Leland
“There’s a new patient in Room Three,” Doris, the shift supervisor, says while pulling the file and laying it on the hospice counter. Marcie, a young Island nurse, leans her…
Fiction
The Flash Flood by Raymund P. Reyes
The Flash Flood It came at night. I was in bed, counting sheep like Pa taught me. The next day was a school day. I could hear Ma and Pa…
Fiction
Mysterious Ways by LaRue Cook
Mysterious Ways I got called to speak for the Lord in the summer of ’92. Boy, what a summer that was, let me tell you. I hadn’t said a prayer…
Fiction
Dear Dr. Kevorkian by Gustaf Berger
our extinguished career for years and was at wit’s end with anger when that publicity-seeking DA terminated your career and sent you to prison and not even a prison where…
Fiction
Graveyard Polka by B. C. Nance
Graveyard Polka “Listen, now,” Victor said to the cab driver, “you drive to the front gate and wait thirty minutes…” Victor paused and looked at the western sky, now fading…
Fiction
The Ecology of Duck Death by Diego Reymondez
that killed the duck in the end. A fairly human estimation of how much could get done in a day without bothering to factor in the hours of curiosity. So…
Fiction
Open Your Eyes by Shirley Smothers
Open Your Eyes I had been feeling sad and lonely. I decided to go back into the past and visit my childhood home. When I arrived, my sister, mother, and…
Fiction
The Fall of King Marty by Daniel Tobin
t sends Isaac’s head all the way around his body, kind of like those cartoons he used to watch when he was younger. He is suddenly spinning, gravity seizing control…
Fiction
My Commencement Speech to the Inwood, Indiana, Home-Schooled Class of 2016 by Joel Haskard
diana, Home-Schooled Class of 2016: Today you come out into the world as graduates, leaving behind the musty corridors full of old newspapers and windows covered in aluminum foil, the…
Fiction
We Will never Forget You by Matt Braynard
lls down the steps, and breaks her wrist. In the news reports, her injury is counted among the others caused by the tragedy at the high school that day. The…
Fiction
Redemption by Janete Cabral-Jackson
Redemption “So thanks again for letting me stay here the night.” John said. “Yes, you’re not the first one to get lost. I am known as Fishwick around these parts.”…
Fiction
Baggage from Rustling Pines by Nidhi Singh
s, ghosts need an audience, an inner circle of admirers so to say, people who will vouch for them. Take them out of their comfort zone, and voila, they have…
Fiction
Bobby Boyd’s Bad Eyes by Neva Bryan
can play poker? Bullshit!” “I swear, Jennie, I seen it with my own eyes. Bobby trained it to play. And the scary thing is, it’s good.” I shook my head…
Fiction
On Every Street by Jeff C. Stevenson
On Every Street There’s one in every town, an old house where an elderly person or couple have lived for years in relative isolation. The neighbors don’t see them much…
Fiction
White Lies by Kristan Campbell
White Lies Cassie tried to concentrate on the familiar scenery outside of the smudged, back seat window of her mother’s clunky black ’74 Impala. The same graying stalks of corn…
Fiction
Under the Stars by Joseph Benedict
Under The Stars I “Thanks for coming. I’m sure my father would have appreciated it.” Robert forced his lips into a smile as the elderly couple made their way through…
Fiction
Glossoplegia by Bill Lisbon
Glossoplegia Randall looked up at the grid pattern of panels in the room’s drop ceiling and imagined a board game. The squares of florescent lights would mean something special. The…
Fiction
Too Young to Face the Dawn by Andrew DiPrinzio
rying now in your crib, which your father moved from our bedroom to the guest room. He sleeps there with you because on your first morning home post-hospital, when you…