After security kicked us out and the theme park closed for the night, the nine of us huddled outside the bolted gates. Under the silhouette of the Ferris wheel against a full moon, we made a plan. …

Myth Icarus flies. A mermaid lifts her song heavenward and bewitches him. Icarus asks the sun to free him from his shackles of waxed feathers. He falls down. Now he lives free at the bottom …

My friend had a cousin or else nephew named Elwood who, way back when, after joining the army, his drill sergeant stuffed a live cigarette up his left nostril and from then on he, Elwood, could sme…

Dr. Simmons studies the results of our daughter’s blood tests. “Mr. and Mrs. Jacobsen, I’ll get right to it.” Glenna leans forward. I try to squint away the words I don’t want to hear. “Your daught…

All bu-bu-bu-bubbles disappeared, but no one worried at first—until people started to gain weight uncontrollably. Only then did they realize it was the Law of Nature: when something ceases to exist…

Jim felt sad for the baby in a way he couldn’t talk about with his wife, because the baby wasn’t dead yet, so Miriam was still worried and not yet sad. He felt sad and sorry for the baby, who was n…

When Canada discontinued the penny, I began my collection. Craving constancy, I hoarded every one cent coin crossing my path. Checking the year of each addition released a flood of memories. 1973. …

When Ebenezer Ezekiel Ellenberger is not reading, he’s most likely dreaming of Marinda Johnson, who is the homespun mistress of his heart. The two are to be married, although Old Ebb has yet to fin…

Someone’s banging on the door. It shakes, scattering the splinters of light that push through cracks in the wood. Who is it? shouts the voice in my head. But my mouth, as always, is as still as t…

In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth, and then He created a lanky boy who stuttered when he spoke and tripped over his own feet. He placed him in a desert town, where each mornin…

Jacob drove slowly across the narrow middle school parking lot. He gawked at the obscenities spray painted on either side of the metal blue double-doors of the small auditorium. The skinny block le…

The Gender Police shove me onto the midnight street, leaving me with nothing but the clothes they arrested me in. Father’s clothes. First warning, they tell me. Next time will be worse. Worse than …

An old woman lived with her husband the blacksmith in San Jiaoxing Village. They got married when she was 13, sent by her parents from Si Fangxing Village, further west on the plains. By the time s…

Maya leaves the motel in bedroom slippers, her puffy coat tight around her. Across the empty highway, the rising sun is a cold half-circle above the mountain lake where limestone “tufa” formations …

by Justin Holliday At the coffee shop I see him turning the page of a book. I don’t read the title but stare at his forearm, adorned with ink vines snaking up to his bicep. His black …

I shut off the alarm and get out of bed. A dog sleeps on the floor; his coat is the color of gravy-soaked bread. I don’t own a pet. Careful not to disturb the animal, I crawl back under the covers and try to dream of an explanation. via Pocket A Keeper of Things – THE AIRGONAUT via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2XB8vog

by Mike Lee The light from the lamp illuminated the photos on the wall, obscured by the glass reflections. He knew what they were of–he took them. Photographed them all. Yet the…

by Erik Fuhrer You love horses, their strong sinewed necks, how their throats rattle like a carburetor. So, I decide on a mythic proposal: Dead Horse Bay, in Brooklyn, NY, where I ima…

by Mason Binkley June 5th He came home early from work yesterday afternoon, still wearing his white coat. A stethoscope remained coiled around his neck like a noose. As he drifted ins…