By Bruce Levine Spring was officially the season. The Spring Equinox had taken place on March twentieth, and it was now close to the end of April. But for Gary Sounding spring was never truly spring until he’d seen robins…

By: Osugiri-Iro Ezichi Franklyn It would be the night of an afo, the second one after the seventh new moon when the women came and Obiageli put the blunt razor to your hair, shaving carelessly until you scalp and it…

By Anna Cates A faint mist, reeking of swamp rot, hovered above the boreal gulag.  The remainder of charred trees rose from the muck like middle fingers raised in defiance to a long-forgotten god.  Ten thousand years would pass before…

By: Christopher Johnson Travis Monroe settled into the coach seat, which felt unutterably soft and plush and luxurious. He waved to his parents standing on the platform immediately outside the window of the train, and they waved back. His mother…

By Thomas M. McDade I thought I’d regret skipping a goodbye visit to the Windburn Barn so better safe than sorry I drove there. I figured a bunch of college kids would have rented it by now but there were…

By: Jack Kamm  “If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” – Maya Angelou A friend of mine, a newly enlightened Buddhist, informed me that nobody is special…that in mind and…

By: Yoonwoo Lee I give something many volunteers cannot — the gift of being a big brother to third grader Yoo Sangho. Sangho doesn’t really like school, but he studies a lot. Eternally upbeat, he enjoys his life, as simple…

By Stephen Tillman “Not here!” Julie exclaimed as Mark held open the door of the restaurant. “It’s too fancy and too expensive. I’m not dressed for a place like this. You said it would be casual.” “Don’t you worry your…

By: Fran Schumer             Some time ago, when I was a young mother, a woman in my neighborhood told me that every day at about 2 p.m., before her daughter came home from school, she would masturbate. If her husband,…

By Nicola Vallera It’s the craziest day of my life, and I’m heading into the department stores for Christmas shopping. I wasn’t planning on buying anything for anyone. I’m thirty-one, my folks are gone, and my relatives are memories. Thank…