Fiction
Perennials
In the garden. It looks like snow, a surreal May frost, but the sun slaps my winter-paled skin as I hunch over the tiny growths..
Section
Fiction
Showing 337-360 of 560 pieces
Fiction
The Girl on the Roof
She arrived in Buenos Aires with the story born of her travels so fulsome in her that she felt like a woman she’d seen in..
Fiction
One Year, One Hundred Years
Imagine entering an apartment building that is outwardly non-descript, concrete, post-modern; it rises shadowing a mosque next door. Imagine the muezzin’s call to prayer is..
Fiction
The Reincarnated One
1956 was an especially poor monsoon year, the drought which had gripped our region intermittently over the past few years was now starting to take..
Fiction
Lost and found
The old book’s cloth cover had turned gray. A friend, who knows my passion for Eastern poetry, had just given it to me as a..
Fiction
Arcs of Memory
I No one in Bodhi’s village had expected an ascent of the Mount Everest. It alarmed his mother. Men had trespassed on an abode of..
Fiction
Remarkable Fall
On an otherwise ordinary autumn day, I killed a three-year-old boy. One might think that the air held some hint of warning, but it didn’t—just..
Fiction
To The Horizon
The wind blows the dust and dry dirt across the plains, ceaselessly lifting it from the earth only to set it down again elsewhere. The..
Fiction
A Natural Arrangement
The caress of the morning call yanks my soul. It screams for attention. I cannot tell who calls whom or why. Beneath me, the dusty..
Fiction
Rabbit Bone Pink
“One of us should live here some day,” Dinesh says, gazing up at the ceiling in the living room of 42 RC. His sister, Sathya,..
Fiction
On The Prowl
The tightening in the center of my back and a slight tingling sensation inside my nose let me know that she had arrived. Mid hug with..
Fiction
Checkpoint 104
In the dusty, windy hills above Bethlehem, she drove alone along the lonely by-pass road leading north from Wadi al-Arayis toward East Jerusalem. It was..
Fiction
They’ll say it was an Honest Mistake
“Yo, J, Got a light?” I pulled the convenient store lighter from my pocket with finger cutoff gloves. My nails were blackened from the shop,..
Fiction
In Gresham
Temperature hit one hundred, making our third floor apartment close to like Hell. I spent the day with Ben in the playground, leaving him under..
Fiction
The Almost Mother
The Almost Mother sits with me on a park bench, smiling to herself, humming a lullaby, while she looks for children to trip. A strange..
Fiction
Summers of Solitude
I grew up afraid of asking questions, afraid of being curious. It still affects the way I live. Any time I crossed that line as..
Fiction
Rumsey’s Watch
Walter looked at his watch, the warm sun reflecting across its silver blue dial into his eyes. The second hand appeared to be moving in..
Fiction
A Light Eulogy
Now for the eulogies. My brother goes first. He sobs. He and my father were close. They were both good at science. I can’t say..
Fiction
William
At 11:45PM on a February Friday, William dusts the snow from the shoulders of his full-length, dark wool business coat and enters the office of..
Fiction
Until They Fall
The dentist says, “Oh, oh…” her hands in my mouth while her assistant holds the suction gun limp-wristed, like a pencil she might use for..
Fiction
Heavy Wings
John didn’t come home that night. Reports said that a young Black man, suspected of robbery, was attacked by police officers on the corner of..
Fiction
Deception
Mic, feeling every one of his fifty-four years, sat on a stool, hunched over the hundred-year-old mahogany bar scared with burn marks from the years..
Fiction
Rain, Rain, Gone Away
It’s never a dark and stormy night. Never a dark and stormy day, either. Ain’t been since ‘fore I was born. The sky’s straight-up robin’s..
Fiction
De-parted
Train travel was slowly dying out like the art of writing letters. I didn’t care for such statements made by various people I knew. I..