Issue #3

Taken By Mermaids by Ken L. Jones

The bright guitar playing city lights clipped the wings Of a beach that seemed to be made of beer cans And so it never really spawned any delicious songs And its coastal…

A Box of Diamonds by Ken L. Jones

The leaves let go and explode Like a Chinese paper umbrella twirling As the wind tears them from their trees And sets their hobo feet to moving Autumn has endless trains to…

The Joke by Daniel Wilmoth

Evening cooled the air and purpled the sky. On our second date, we strolled through a pedestrian mall paved with brick, not holding hands. It was lined with restaurants, bars, clothing stores,…

Denomination by Carolyn Smuts

“What religion is this again?” “Lutheran, I think.” We sat there, Claudia and me, watching the activity on the altar. I could tell the guy doing the talking was cool because he…

Bennie by Jackie Maugh Robinson

I met Bennie in 1978. Right after I started selling real estate. She lived in a small, Tudor-style cottage. It had been her home for fifty-seven years. When she answered my knock…

Plowing Another Field by Donald Buhl-Brown

The farmer drove by again, louder this time. His tractor tearing the ground up. Planting another harvest, I wonder if he knows, it is his last. That is the funny thing about…

A Planted Seed by Donald Buhl-Brown

A woman doesn’t have to be around long, or even be around a lot, for the seed to be planted in a man. Time after time that seed rots away. Leaving a…

Not Today Demons by Donald Buhl-Brown

It sits in the shadows of my living room, he just sits and waits for me. Just waiting for the chance to pounce. Not tonight I say again. Not tonight. This demon…

That Single Orange Light by Donald Buhl-Brown

One single orange light, is shining through my window. It continuously keeps me awake. But when I am walking home from work… Exhausted, covered in dirt, just wanting to fall asleep. You’d…

Cling by Erin Vance

A pale flag that emerges from the soil, hovers stifled with dirt, and cries, it’s sweet whiskey snap and you, the ligaments of a chorus, dry, split.

Charlotte by Erin Vance

Charlotte a china girl sleeps in a matchbox bed; frozen her tender bones tumbled smooth by flesh-round stumps

Constant by Erin Vance

the acne scars on your back are dark braille, three-dimensional tattoos without images your body is a soaking book. you are coffee beans and low blood pressure and the craters dug from…

Tobacco Road by Bill W. Melton

I have taken the liberty of borrowing the title of Erskine Caldwell’s epic novel about childhood memories of tobacco growing. The tobacco cycle is a long one, lasting perhaps fourteen or fifteen…

Hopping a Freight Train…

To get on, go to where trains stop. Choose a “side out” (where parallel tracks converge), or anywhere trains are known to slow down to a crawl. Obviously, you ought to know…

Moose Lake Cartoons by Roddy Thorleifson

Leavened With Butter by Thomas Elson

On a dull Wednesday afternoon, Rachel Benson, tired after teaching all day, tired from driving home on an Indy-like freeway, even more tired of the maze she was forced to negotiate daily…

A Quality Gem by Taylor Lauren Ross

The popular phrase in my family these days is, “We don’t know how much longer Gemmy’s going to be around.” Gemmy is what we call my 84-year-old grandmother (when we were little…

The Parable of the Vengeful Man by Daniel Wilmoth

Kevin hunched over the keyboard, shirtsleeves rolled past his elbows, squinting at the screen as he typed his final message to those who would soon be former coworkers. A closed door prevented…

Clancy’s Kids by Percy L. Crosby

Beethoven, Loved and Lost by Madeleine Joung

It is during the second show of our town musical, waiting backstage for my solo in my red polyester dress, that I can’t ignore it anymore. It hurts, no, breaks my neck…