A New Kind of Literary Pulse

Normalcy never resonated with me. Normal children do not try to take their mother's lithium, hoping they can "sleep forever." Normal children do not pinch themselves when they get angry. Normal ... [+]

The sun dipped below the horizon, casting a golden glow over the tranquil coastal town of Harbor Springs. Waves lapped gently against the shore, whispering secrets of the sea to anyone willing to ... [+]

Heath stood in a blank void before a white gate, made in the simplest shape. Two upright pillars of ivory towered above him, adorned in subtle swirls and decorative dotting, and held up a third ... [+]

We only ever met when the blue moon shone, a rare beacon in the night sky. I could hardly believe how vibrant it was, how strangely similar it was to your smile – both precious and elusive, yet on ... [+]

As I set foot in the Vatican, I was possessed by its energies and the chills that hovered over me. I am a woman who has lived long enough to defy what my eyes lay upon and spiral into my own black ... [+]

Once in a blue moon, Baba Yaga's house stops to rest.
When this happens, Death comes to play cards.
Baba Yaga and Death go far back, before her name had been washed away and replaced. The two ... [+]

Sickly sweet sap drips down from the trees. This sticky forest cries for us because it knows what we must do. What I must do. Our armor protects us from the leaking trees. I'm careful not to step ... [+]

Orientation begins today and Dad graciously agreed to make the trek with me. He rolls the window down, and even though we are three hours away from Whitefish, I pray that no one from school will be ... [+]

                The firepink flowers on the shore were purple in the dying light. I looked at them so that I didn't have to look at him.               "It's almost time," he said ... [+]

The Mod pushed the volume dial on his portable cassette player as high as it would go. Normally, he preferred to listen to the sound of his Lambretta as it cut through the cosmos, but the interstella ... [+]

The worms they pilgrimed onward
For a miracle they knew
Had poured from yonder heaven,
Their devotion would be due.
 
Onward! onward! To their harbor,
For the flies already there-
And beetles ... [+]

The sun had set on this side of the ocean. Here, we didn't have beaches or sand. Instead, cracked clam shells piled on the shore. The shards tumbled up the bank as the waves rolled in before ... [+]

Once, as they passed Køge on the way to the village that would be their home for the next few decades, Ava convinced her mother to spend a day at its seaport shore. There, she stood at the edge of ... [+]

Through the window, the moonlight peeps in     You were sitting in the corner of the café today, right along the back wall. I liked how you almost fell into the shadows but were not completely ... [+]

On the first hour of the fifth day of the eleventh month, the bus pulled up alongside the quiet stretch of road I was on. The driver was a bespectacled elder, the skin of his face dragged down due ... [+]

 I make my way down the stairs to the hull of the ship to the newest prisoner. She's different from the rest. She put up a fight. Only one brave enough to. She's no more than an orphan. Not much ... [+]

I keep the ropes coiled under my bed for a clear night. They're the thickest I could find. I think they're made for tug-of-war or something. Ronnie from Severville Hardware didn't ask questions when ... [+]

WHEN EYES MEET, SOME SAY IT HAPPENS ONCE IN A BLUE MOON.     The warmth of a lover's sweater, the laughter from an old friend's core. I grew up in this city but in her passage of time, I call ... [+]