Author: Dual Coast Magazine

Neighbor by JB Mulligan

A person three seats over from a person three seats away reading Darwish and Wodehouse – the fullness of any one of us journeying to work past angels of light in the…

Stargazing by Christina Haupt

Ever calm and never standing still Are the billion stars out of which I see a few That shine brighter than the others Eyes and mind not fixed on any of them…

Marriage Place by Will Hearn

Places are like photographs. Your first visit somewhere is the snapshot, and every visit thereafter just adds shadow, highlight, or a frame around what you already know. Like with meeting people, first…

The Grey Town by Ewa Mazierska

When Alex and I visit our summer apartment in Kinghorn, there’s always something that doesn’t work and isn’t easy to fix. This time it was the hot water boiler, and the only…

The Scream by Gloria g. Murray

When I awoke the morning of my seventieth birthday. I knew I was no longer alive. Every part of me seemed so light under the sheets. I tried to move each limb…

Everyday Signs by Samantha Pilecki

When signs come, follow them. Coincidences exist, but so do smack-you-over-the-head directives. There are everyday signs, so clear you can’t ignore them. Anything can be the key to a Narnia. Any spider…

Forever by Rachel Zempel

growing commotion voices loud, soft, far, and near children excitedly running past; adults casually strolling behind them fresh tracks in the snow where green foliage had been replaced by glistening white crystals…

Elk Call by Sarah Summerson

Allen stood on the banister of the wrap around porch the pink and purple spindles of what the neighbors called the Christmas house on account of all the lights he cupped his…

Some Time Ago Yesterday by Claire Scott

trail of pants shirts underwear your plaid boxers my lacy bra lips tongues teeth frantic, pressing bodies burning slick with sweat encore une fois until we fall into tangled sleep ~~~OOO~~~ some…

Not Exactly Florence Nightingale by Claire Scott

that’s you not me in the white bed, white board with the name of today’s on-duty nurse: Mahalia Reyes me in my gym clothes and Asics running shoes still pink from exertion…

Bulky Pickup by Claire Scott

Without a doubt my favorite day of the year no need to buy presents, send sappy cards or FTD flowers no need to make another too-dried-out turkey with sausage stuffing no one…

Expectations by Grace Lu

expectations are a dangerous game prefacing 2 a.m. thoughts 4 a.m. wakes 6 a.m. alarms and 8 a.m. lattes always expecting something out of nothing but getting nothing out of everything expecting…

Here for the Food by Tim Wenzell

My grandfather left my father’s family In the middle of a cold night in 1933. He said he was going out for coal. That was two years ago and on the day…

Devil’s Bird Comes Ahead of Bad Weather by Jamey Genna

Toki and I are sitting on the beach at Half Moon Bay when he spots a devil’s bird. Toki says, “Look, there’s a devil’s bird.” I look in the direction he points…

The Lost Belt by Jamey Genna

She was looking for the belt that said Jim on the back of it, the belt with the scorpion belt buckle. It was black-and-grey leather, handmade in the ‘70s, the name Jim…

Clean Fill Needed by Erin Smith

Elwood lifted the withered, wood board from the tall weeds and propped it against the sagging fence. The black, uneven letters dripped down the jagged sign: “CLEAN FILL NEEDED.” He absently plucked…

A Red Light District by Isaac Eustice

I walked back to her condo in the rain. Well, technically it wasn’t her condo, it was her roommate’s condo, Antony. His mother owned it and rented it out to him, and…

Gold Teeth by Bill Melton

My paternal grandmother had a full set of dentures. What I remember most about her teeth were the two prominent gold ones you saw every time she smiled. As curious children are…

Our Lady of the Harbor by Robert Walton

The woman’s corpse clutched a tattered blanket in already skeletal fingers. Pink ponies cavorted between smudges of mud and blood. She was somewhere between forty and eighty, but death made her seem…

Broken Chains By David Schultz