Albany en Recto Verso | Ted Jean

"1. you are headed south to be with your dying sister; while 2. your idiot heart rises toward bliss to be sailing like an improbably bulky bird across this heartbreak beautiful pedestrian winter Western Oregon farmland..."

Coot Feet | Amanda Jaffe

"One minute I’m watching a small, black duck make its elegant approach toward the shoreline, barely a ripple on the water in its wake. The next minute, that 'duck' hops ashore on a pair of phlegm-colored legs that give way to three angst-inducing toes..."

Tectonics | Edward Ahern

Edward Ahern has had four hundred stories and poems and six books published so far. He works the other side of writing at Bewildering Stories, where he sits on the review board and manages a posse of nine review editors.

Love in the Knots of the Coptic Stitch | Beth Kephart

"Be aware the flowers will fade, that the fibers in the new paper are the fibers from the old paper, that whomever you were in the original will be whomever you are. There are no blank sheets..."

Imaginary Friend | Christine Salek

"Sometimes, when you have life growing inside of you, you wish you were a child again, and the thing inside you could be an imaginary friend that you feed and water and care for..."

Little Z | Susan L. Lin

"They called him Little Z because he was the youngest of the bunch—and wholly unoriginal, if what the others said was true. 'You look like a drunken N,' a male teacher had scolded once, his disdain clear..."

Marlon Brando Is a Bowling Pin | John Grayson Heide

"The audience reaction is mixed. The splattering of applause peters out and is replaced by murmurs and soft chatter. Leaning on the chair next to Johnny is a six-foot tall bowling pin, complete with a shiny white skin and a red strip festooned around a pinched neck..."