Portrait - page 1 - short circuit

Short Fiction

Liturgy of Light

A cornucopia of color. A litany of light. That's what I could count on come December. It had even spiraled into a competition amongst my neighbors, each house trying to one-up the next. But as far as ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait 2 min Mature Audience

The Sweetest Stench

Kevin Brown

My father died of heart failure the same Chinese New Year girls began to draw my eye over my ire. I wasn't present for his death but figured us square since he wasn't present for my life.
Though ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait Love & Loss 4 min Mature Audience

Pinecone

Katherine Davis

The sisters had walked these trails many times when they were little. But this time, the older sister was walking with her boyfriend. The younger sister stayed in front, pretending not to be bothered ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait Suspense & Mystery 1 min

The Sweet Striper

Rolli .

The children don't understand.

The sweets they pine for are not squeezed from the machine with stripes intact. No—they must be painted on, by hand, with so much care. It is almost unimaginable, the ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait Nostalgia Love & Loss 4 min Mature Audience

My Horse of a Different Color

FC Pierce

It was the summer of '82, my first year at Saint Vincent's. I'd just arrived in the city, a newly minted nurse from the Midwest, and taken an apartment on Perry Street with three other nurses. He was ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait Slice of Life 4 min Mature Audience

Wildfire

Patrick Kuklinski

We weren't quite yet old enough for a high school reunion, and not quite close enough to become Facebook friends or follow each other on Twitter. And yet, here we were. Jack had been one of my best ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait Slice of Life 1 min

The Identification of Bears

Betsy Cornelius

"Do you like Sunshine Bear?"

Becca scowls down at her white shirt emblazoned with a smiling bear—at the long, bony finger inches away from her skinny chest.

"It's Funshine Bear," she says. She ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait Slice of Life 3 min

Four-Leaf Clover

Peter Wallace

The four-leaf clover should not have been there, caught in Esteban's hair. It was a surprise there was any clover at all. The cows had already been through twice that week, pulling at the remnants of ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait Slice of Life 3 min

Channel Five

Nathan Alling Long

"Are you scared?" I ask Dad over the phone.
"What do I have to be scared about?" he says. "We're locked in our rooms."
He's always been tough like that, stoic, but I wish I could see his face, hug ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait 4 min Mature Audience

All the Spiders

Floris M. Kleijne

Colonel Mathura beckons me forward, but the balcony is a maw with a balustrade of marble teeth. The crowd devours me with their cheers. I shuffle forward to be consumed by their support. The midday ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait Nostalgia Love & Loss 5 min

A Bunch of Early Mimosas

Emil Draitser

"So, you're happy, huh?" he says in disbelief.

He asks me this question several times during our two-hour get-together, trying to understand how I could feel so much happier about my life than he ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait Magical Realism 1 min

Tints and Hues

Dale Stromberg

Bellatrix Sakakino worked for a commercial bank, focusing on securities valuation and research, and nobody liked her. This was because of her tints and hues. The colors emanating from her person were ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait 2 min

The Night My Father Danced Like Gene Kelly

E. E. King

Dapper in a topcoat and tails, feet moving fast and graceful as birds skimming still waters, he whirled and swooped, catching my mother, still young and slim, by the waist, bending her backward. She ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait Slice of Life 5 min

A Stranger’s Time

Drew Kolenik

I've never been less than an hour early for my train. I don't know if it comes from a sense of heightened preparedness or an ongoing current of anxiety that doesn't even let me sleep in on weekends ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait Quirky Young Adult 4 min

The Girl in the Tree

Rolli .

Tracy Jo Freely climbed a tree one day. A plum tree. The big plum tree at the end of Miro Street.
"When are you coming back down?" her parents asked her an hour later.
"Never," said Tracy Jo.
He ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait Modern Love Slice of Life 4 min

Fox

Anthony Kane Evans

i.

Rob and I were down the pub, drinking Guinness. There was a woman in there with a face like a fox. The whiteness of it, along with the red hair, only strengthened the impression. She shot out ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait Humor 4 min Mature Audience

Where I See Myself in 150 Years or Less

Liz Mayers

Working toward sainthood this summer solved some of my problems. For one, my daily-Mass-going mother got off my back about getting a job and moving out permanently. Plus, it gave her something to brag ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait Slice of Life 5 min Mature Audience

Diet in Venice

Thomas J. Misuraca

Gregory Ashton set out alone from his apartment in Mar Vista, California for an extended walk. It was spring in the year 20–, and Gregory needed exercise. His doctor had recently diagnosed him as ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait 2 min

My Father Was A Doctor

Juan Rosado

My father was a doctor. We never got the doctoring bug. He never spoke to us about medicine. Instead, he took us on road trips and taught us to play catch, even me. When we were little, he would read ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait Slice of Life Nostalgia 5 min Mature Audience

Sins and Secrets

Michael Riordan

He had earned the stamp of "loser" in his father-in-law's eyes. Worse, he was less a man to his wife Jean. When a possum tried to move in a few months after they purchased their little two-bedroom ... [+]

A New Kind of Literary Pulse

A New Kind of Literary Pulse

Liturgy of Light

The Sweetest Stench

Pinecone

The Sweet Striper

My Horse of a Different Color

Wildfire

The Identification of Bears

Four-Leaf Clover

Channel Five

All the Spiders

A Bunch of Early Mimosas

Tints and Hues

The Night My Father Danced Like Gene Kelly

A Stranger’s Time

The Girl in the Tree

Fox

Where I See Myself in 150 Years or Less

Diet in Venice

My Father Was A Doctor

Sins and Secrets