278 July, 2020

pages Micro-Fiction

Parable of the Earth’s Crust

Issue No. 278 ~ July, 2020

The ocean reverberated swells and dips, then made skin to shelter in, like bread dough when it’s rising makes a crust, or like surface-ice that buckles from beneath. The skin thickened to a turtle’s shell run through with fissures, through which ocean frothed and cooled, …

The Tree of Knowledge

Issue No. 278 ~ July, 2020

I’m haunted by diabetes. Metformin twice daily. Finger pricks determine glucose levels after testing strips absorb the sticky drops. This disease is god’s punishment for gobbling fudge at Martha’s Vineyard. Sugared butter on the waterfront shriveled my kidneys and tainted my blood. I cringe whenever …

map Macro-Fiction

Cannibals

Issue No. 278 ~ July, 2020

Alma had been thinking about cannibals all Sunday afternoon. It started at lunch when she was eating the roast-beef sandwich that her aunt Nancy had made, and she began wondering what baby Ellie would taste like. Nancy had gone outside to rake up the dead …

local_library Poetry

build Craft

The Magic List

Issue No. 278 ~ July, 2020

Writers love lists, and locked-down writers adore them. These days we have more time for them, and they fill moments when creative inspiration fades. Usually, we greedily grab creative writing time from paid work, grocery shopping, family obligations, and so on. Still, in stay-home COVID-19 …

portrait One on One