Short Circuit - Short Circuit #05

Short Fiction

Plum Tree

I saw them once, when I was little. Maybe age four or five.
The tree on the other side of the fence had branches stretching over our garden. It was too tall for me to reach the succulent, juicy ... [+]

Children's

Adventure Friendship & Family Humor 3 min

Rachel Reynolds Zombie Whisperer

Laurel Handfield

The creepy old house smells like three-month-old kitty litter and rotting dumpster food.

The night is cold, and the air in the run-down house even colder. Rachel takes another step down the hall ... [+]

Children's

Adventure Friendship & Family 4 min

The Adventurous Little Mole and the Squid Attack

Edward Mack

The adventurous little mole, whose name was Oscar, lived in a mole-hole at the bottom of the sea with his unadventurous mother and father and his timid little sister who was scared of ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Suspense & Mystery 1 min

Summer of 1985

Thea Pueschel

The cool breeze drifts in from the Pacific Ocean through the banana plant leaves. Shadows dance across the pastel pallet of the bedspread; the charcoal nude woman looks over her shoulder. Jesus ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait Historical Sorrow 4 min

My Friend Matty

FC Pierce

My friend Matty believed he could fly. "I have the cape and everything," he told me one afternoon. We were playing knights and dragons in his backyard when he pointed to the roof.

"You want to ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait Romance 5 min

Lucia and Salvatore

Annette D. Koch

There was no sunlight that day, and flowers with banners naming the giver had no aroma. The Godfather theme music played in Maria's head while a cast of characters, like sepia photos in her mother's ... [+]

Poetry

Contemporary Melancholy Romance 1 min

First Love

Despy Boutris

We head toward the peach orchard,
the one we found midsummer
at the edge of town, past the ... [+]

Poetry

Contemporary Melancholy 1 min

After

Despy Boutris

This morning, before sunrise, I walked
along the road, passing

all the boarded-up buildings ... [+]

Poetry

Contemporary 1 min

The Grunge Years

Justin W Price

I tucked my hair, long
and blond like Kurt's,
behind my ears.
Red flannel hung low,
loose ... [+]

Children's

Friendship & Family 2 min

Rocco

Kristy Roser Nuttall

Rocco always knew he was a little different.

While other dinosaurs ran wild through the forest, Rocco spent his time in the kitchen wearing an apron and doing baking experiments.

Rocco was ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait 4 min

She Danced

Rachel Carrington

She danced naked in the rain, her palms upward to accept the droplets of moisture. Captivated by her own imagination, lost in a world of her own creation, a world where outsiders weren't welcome ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Modern Love Portrait 2 min

Off-Sale

Hassan Melehy

Across a wood-grain bar in southern Minnesota on the way to Buddy Holly roller coaster in slower Iowa, I lay a few dollars on the bar for the sixpack of Blatz (cheapest they got and straight from ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Sorrow Love & Loss 5 min

The Girl Who Liked Cats

Dave Cuzzolina

Harold Gates slowed the snow-topped yellow taxi and edged it along the slushy curb to a stop where she stood, shivering in a tattered wool coat in a January blizzard on the steps of her unlit ... [+]

Poetry

Contemporary 1 min

Riotous

Howie Good

A police van
has been
overturned
and the Burger King
on the corner
is burning,

and if ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Historical 1 min

East is Left, West is Right

J. Scott Miller

Near midnight she pedals her rented bike past Checkpoint Charlie. Vacant, but suitably restored, the off-white, utilitarian guard box occupies the middle of the street, protected from a barrage of ... [+]

Poetry

Contemporary Nature Melancholy 1 min

Hope Against Hope

Howie Good

I have seen this movie before,
I know how it ends, with troops in the streets,
and the charred ... [+]

Poetry

Contemporary Nature 1 min

Preserving the Last Starling

John Davies

The bird contained
within a bone-melded cage
tries to breathe:
a bubble of air rises,
a pump ... [+]

Poetry

Contemporary 1 min

Aubade while I Check Your Pulse

Stephen Hundley

If you swim before the children wake
take me along. Though it is you, Folly Beach
lifer, and me ... [+]

Poetry

Contemporary 1 min

Ophelia Afloat

Judith Skillman

Her face beneath the glass coffee table.
A marble ornament,
a plated face.
Weigh heavy a ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Modern Love 3 min

Bayshore Piano Movers

Anna Ziegelhof

This job is a grand. We're supposed to deliver the piano from a suburban chateau into a self-storage facility. Why doesn't matter. Pick-up address, how many floors down; delivery address, how many ... [+]

Poetry

Contemporary Melancholy 1 min

From a High Perch, Waiting

Deborah L. Davitt

He climbed a telephone pole first;
next, a cell phone tower,
because he'd heard of ancient ... [+]

A New Kind of Literary Pulse

A New Kind of Literary Pulse

Plum Tree

Rachel Reynolds Zombie Whisperer

The Adventurous Little Mole and the Squid Attack

Summer of 1985

My Friend Matty

Lucia and Salvatore

First Love

After

The Grunge Years

Rocco

She Danced

Off-Sale

The Girl Who Liked Cats

Riotous

East is Left, West is Right

Hope Against Hope

Preserving the Last Starling

Aubade while I Check Your Pulse

Ophelia Afloat

Bayshore Piano Movers

From a High Perch, Waiting