INWOOD ★ INDIANA ★ A REAL SMALL TOWN ★ InwoodStories & poems from a real small town
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Reaping

Harvest, endings, and the long blade of the season.

54 pieces
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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…

Raymund P. Reyes · August 2, 2016
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…

LaRue Cook · August 2, 2016
Poetry

Bones of Blue, Eyes of Gold by j.lewis

to redefine myself redesign everything from the inside out I would start with bones of blue not soft, gentle, pastels but deep, intense, midnight blues that hold the mysteries of…

j.lewis · August 2, 2016
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…

Gustaf Berger · August 2, 2016
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…

B. C. Nance · August 2, 2016
Poetry

Dutch by Adam Phillips

Dutch Darren Daulton crouched behind the plate, ligaments in his knees crackling like campfires in a primordial forest. he’d been pulled from the shadowed alleys of Philadelphia and pushed squinting…

Adam Phillips · August 2, 2016
Poetry

An Ordinary Morning by Joseph J. Kozma

Liquidized stones, almost Called lava, found its way Between the leaves Of maples just finished Bleeding sugar freely; It was a beautiful morning. Mornings are like that On days when…

Joseph J. Kozma · August 2, 2016
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…

Diego Reymondez · August 2, 2016
Poetry

Heart-Shaped Lollies by Linda Sacco

e Station. Heart-shaped lollies Stuck to cement floors Now appear at the bottom of my shoes. The sun Has turned them into a mixture Of sweet nothingness That children slip…

Linda Sacco · August 2, 2016
Poetry

Catch by Linda Sacco

Catch He asks, less subtly, what is the meaning? It’s true money doesn’t always fall from the ceiling but he can’t beat the feeling. (I’m a pretty picture on the…

Linda Sacco · August 2, 2016
Poetry

Johnson Grass… by Bob Carlton

Johnson grass, wild lettuce, white puff of thistle– untended, the ditch, low border between upper mowings–

Bob Carlton · August 2, 2016
Poetry

Fat Wet by Bob Carlton

Fat Wet… Fat wet snow flakes fall softly lost on ground unfrozen. Gray skies, bare trees black with water, smoky breath, stinging ears, summer a thought lost in a shiver.

Bob Carlton · August 2, 2016
Poetry

Inversion by David Russomano

Inversion Almost the exact opposite of those birds you hear singing in nearby hedges, but can’t see: this hawk, perched on a low-hanging branch unobscured by leaves, its talons sunk…

David Russomano · August 2, 2016
Poetry

We Pass by David Russomano

We Pass gas stations, grain silos, a small cemetery, telephone poles marching single file, mills, a bowling alley, fast food chains with names that we all recognize, a maze carved…

David Russomano · August 2, 2016
Poetry

Lovecraft Baby by Joshua Medsker

Lovecraft Baby Sickly bodies produce the sickest lines a yahoo from back east, evilly divine or is that divinely evil, he ain’t no gent he’s an agoraphobic shaman from Providence…

Joshua Medsker · August 2, 2016
Poetry

What We Sow by Deborah Davitt

What We Sow They finished the ring road when I was young, but I remember its dirt surface scarring the desert, the barricades. Later, we drove along it; turned east…

Deborah Davitt · August 2, 2016
Poetry

Second Memory by Heather Heckman-McKenna

Second Memory It’s dark and big and dauntingly unfamiliar considering I had known it for so many months. A dark, big stairway. Much darker and bigger than it’s ever seemed…

Heather Heckman-McKenna · August 1, 2016
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…

Shirley Smothers · August 1, 2016
Poetry

Alone in This Place by Shawn Aveningo

, and I’ll be here in the woods all alone and abandoned.” ~Grimm (TV Series) NBC ; Season Two, Episode 19, “Endangered.” I can’t relate to the concept of bomb…

Shawn Aveningo · August 1, 2016
Poetry

The Flag Bearer by Joseph J. Kozma

The Flag Bearer One morning when he woke up He felt like a triangle In a rectangular world. The black milk of the night Refused to clarify, templates Fell apart…

Joseph J. Kozma · August 1, 2016
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…

Daniel Tobin · August 1, 2016
Poetry

Inwood Today by Albert Katz

Inwood Today before that restaurant opened there was another restaurant in the same spot a different name same type of food but less expensive that shop selling shoes used to…

Albert Katz · August 1, 2016
Poetry

Pileated by David Anthony Sam

Pileated His hand is in the rapid hammering as if his touch still carpentered my world, shaping with router and band saw the wood that grew from the black humus.…

David Anthony Sam · August 1, 2016
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…

Joel Haskard · August 1, 2016
Poetry

Wicked Waltz by Lorraine Cipriano

Wicked Waltz Born in the age of phonographs in a small sinister place that was in the middle of Inwood, Indiana where secrets were better left unspoken because of the…

Lorraine Cipriano · August 1, 2016
Poetry

Ghost Town by Deborah Davitt

Ghost Town History’s for sale, non-refundable, you can have it for just a penny. Don’t mind the bullet-riddled signs or the vandalized windows. Not part of the Old West, it…

Deborah Davitt · August 1, 2016
Poetry

Do You See? by Caitlyn Mlodzik

Do You See? Do you see wain in the foxlight? Do you glimpse the turbulence of the moon? Do you recognize the vulnerability of sunlight? Do you descry the essence…

Caitlyn Mlodzik · August 1, 2016
Poetry

The Woman in The Tree by Lianne Kamp

ted beneath the ground calves invisible inside the wood bark grew shiny where the feminine body prepared to expose a hint of thigh. There it was a shapely ass and…

Lianne Kamp · August 1, 2016
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…

Matt Braynard · August 1, 2016
Poetry

Soft Grass Murmur by Alan Inman

ding on its haunches a few yards away gives us no warning before its charge interrupting our lakeside meal and rest.

Alan Inman · August 1, 2016
Poetry

Country Funeral by Alan Inman

Country Funeral down the rambling path they led us to the open mouth of earth where I would lay to rest someone I never met lifting a cask gently.

Alan Inman · August 1, 2016
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.”…

Janete Cabral-Jackson · August 1, 2016
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…

Nidhi Singh · August 1, 2016
Poetry

Journey Alongside a Minor Highway by David Pring-Mill

d by sights and sounds, unknowingly digested by the world. There are ways to escape, to go higher, to be more than indoctrinated particles, to make the world pronounce you…

David Pring-Mill · August 1, 2016
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…

Neva Bryan · August 1, 2016
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…

Jeff C. Stevenson · July 31, 2016
Poetry

The Bluish Hue by Patricia Rossi

The Bluish Hue Midnight…I am doused in darkness, ignited in black suffocation… Yet I see an ethereal light? With apparent reticence dawn arrives shackled to an impenetrable fog… Mother Nature…

Patricia Rossi · July 31, 2016
Poetry

A Collection of Horror Story Haiku by Bobby Aldridge

, low chuffing in the tall grass, which way did they go? ——————————— I fall from the bridge, through memories toward my wife. The coarse rope snaps tight. ——————————— Faint…

Bobby Aldridge · July 31, 2016
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…

Kristan Campbell · July 31, 2016
Poetry

Inwood Knows by Stephanie De Haven

Inwood Knows 1. Inwood knows what it is to sleep in a kill-zone, and hear the trains scream through the straggle pines that we call “The Woods”. Inwood knows the…

Stephanie De Haven · July 30, 2016
Poetry

The Drought in Wichita Falls by Samuel Underwood

ill dry up and be forgotten, while others prefer to keep quiet and go about their days, watering lawns at designated times and displaying their faith in the Good Lord…

Samuel Underwood · July 29, 2016
Poetry

I’ll Be Back by Timothy Philippart

I’ll Be Back Death knocked on the wrong door, twice this week. He stopped on my street, bold as a cloudless sunrise. He checked his book, across the road, one…

Timothy Philippart · July 29, 2016
Poetry

Silence by Lynette Esposito

Silence the birds are quiet in Inwood Indiana at dusk in summer

Lynette Esposito · July 29, 2016
Poetry

Visiting New Places by Lynette Esposito

e in Inwood… an Indiana town where color is a bit off on the common things… a bit of a mystery the locals say when passing through, one sees a…

Lynette Esposito · July 29, 2016
Poetry

Commuting by Morgan Bazilian

Commuting A day breaks Unfettered by guilt or gravity. The foothills seem to be laying back, reclining. The dirt sighs, aware of the heat that will return unabated. The water…

Morgan Bazilian · July 29, 2016
Poetry

Untitled Poems by Bekah Steimel

Untitled Poems I. I’m as dark as the dreams of a demon cold to the touch as if I’m already partially dead I stroll around in the shadows dodging the…

Bekah Steimel · July 29, 2016
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…

Joseph Benedict · July 29, 2016
Poetry

Springtime by John Reinhart

Springtime arrived, open mouthed, black, screeching harpy-like in the tree branch above my picnic table, sure to shit all over the white paint, something dead hanging from her claws; mechanically…

John Reinhart · July 24, 2016
Poetry

Watching the Lamar River Rapids by Tovah S. Yavin

single drop Lurch and hop across a rock And wondered if he’d rather stay To sun himself in sleepy thought. I guessed he’d love to waste a day Lurking in…

Tovah S. Yavin · July 22, 2016
Poetry

Woman Hollering Creek by JR Vork

nst bank Skirt billows beneath Damp from heat Tears, down her cheek Hand to empty womb Her child, glassy eyes … breath still Floats, beyond dawn Murder, they whisper Mother,…

JR Vork · July 22, 2016
non-fiction

Eddie Says Goodnight by Charles Christian

iana talks about Eddie Slabaugh anymore. Why would they, there’s nobody left who remembers Eddie Slabaugh. Sure, he has the same name as the family who run the restaurant in…

Charles Christian · July 12, 2016
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…

Bill Lisbon · July 12, 2016
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…

Andrew DiPrinzio · July 12, 2016
Poetry

Felon by Charles Kell

Felon One time only the walls started to close in. My head pounded with sweat damp beads on my arms and thighs. White dirty concrete pressed against my burning temples.…

Charles Kell · July 12, 2016