The Floppy Book

by Ryan Borchers

I needed to kill a troublesome fly, so I went to the bookstore. There I bought a floppy book, a big one, but lightweight. And since I'd already made the trip and needed a door stopper, I bought a heavy book too. Back home, I smashed the fly with the floppy book. There's nothing so satisfying as making a plan and seeing it succeed. I spent the rest of the afternoon on the balcony, sipping Arnold Palmers and fanning myself with the floppy book.

6S

Ryan Borchers is a writer from Omaha, Nebraska. His work has been published by The Rumpus, Flash Fiction Magazine, Prairie Schooner, Sky Island Journal, Umbrella Factory Magazine, Spelk, 50-Word Stories and other literary journals. His debut novel, Rook, was released in June 2025. Currently, he is collaborating with his sister on a graphic novel about adorable dinosaurs who discover the Internet.

No Big Deal

by Julie Furxhi

They crossed the threshold to complete the delivery. They loved challenges, especially mazes. Simply deliver the manuscript to the monster codenamed Minotaur. Deliver it without getting attacked by bats or snakes, falling into sulfur pits or being crushed by moving walls. The forgotten flashlight would have been helpful. Also, the pay was insufficient.

6S

Julie Furxhi's work has been published in Brilliant Flash Fiction, Eunoia Review, and Story Street Writers. Her debut novel, Desiderium, is available wherever books are sold or at one’s local library. Her website lives here.

These Days

by Cindy Hochman

These days I don’t stop and smell the plumerias because climate change has made my allergies run rampant. These days I don’t go to the movies because, well, Netflix. These days I don’t go to bars because I’m never in time for last call. These days I don’t take long walks because my legs are stiff, creaky, achy (and feel free to add in some more painful adjectives if you are so inclined). These days I don’t watch the news (for obvious reasons). In my next poem I promise to tell you all the wonderful things I do these days.

6S

Cindy Hochman is the founder of "100 Proof" Copyediting Services and the editor-in-chief of the online poetry journal First Literary Review-East (which only takes poems 16 lines and under). Her latest chapbook is Telling You Everything (Unleash Press, 2022). She resides in Brooklyn, New York, where she reads, writes, edits, meditates, learns tai chi, studies the Russian language, and agonizes over politics.

Throwback

by Tricia Park

Sabrina and Mindy giggled and over Mindy’s shoulder, Sabrina spied a boy: sandy-haired, with glasses. When they made eye contact, she looked away, only to glance back, feigning interest in his pile of textbooks, an open laptop. He was still staring. “I think he’s looking over here,” Sabrina laughed into her mocha latte. As Mindy pretended to look up at the painting nearest them – a large portrait of a dour farmer, by one of the starving barista-artists – the boy ambled over and dropped a tiny slip of folded paper, seemingly by accident: "you are very fetching," it read, and a number. Fetching, they wheezed later, even though Sabrina secretly relished the old-fashioned word, feeling like an Emma or a Lizzie or an Elinor, as they sauntered to the sound of honking cars, into the city lights.

6S

Tricia Park is a violinist and writer. A Juilliard graduate, she received her MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Since her concert debut at age thirteen, Tricia has performed on five continents and received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career and Fulbright Grants. Her writing has appeared in Cleaver Magazine, F Newsmagazine and Gathering: A Women Who Submit Anthology. She has a podcast called, “Is it Recess Yet? Confessions of a Former Child Prodigy.” Currently, Tricia is pursuing her PhD at the University of Illinois Chicago’s Program for Writers and is Associate Director of Cleaver Magazine Workshops.

Upriver

by Elizabeth Grey

Melanie’s phone vibrates with a notification and she looks at the screen and says, "I have to finalize my order today," and I know she’s talking about her bulk order—fifty pound bags of flour, beans, rice, and other staples. "Every crew needs a prepper," I say, and I’m not kidding, but I wish I was. Earlier, we attended a conservation film festival, watched stories about the earth and our relationship to it, about the ways people and wildlife and the rivers and the sea depend on one another, and I tell her my favorite was the one called hitoláayca (Going Upriver), the one about Devin Reuben, an indigenous 18-year-old who is training to be the first nimiipuu (Nez Perce) whitewater guide of his generation, though the nimiipuu were of course the original guides on the rivers of their unceded ancestral homelands. Before Devin, hiring a guide to explore these rivers has mostly meant paying a twenty-something man with skin the same fair shade as mine, outfitted in gore-tex. Melanie asks what I loved about the film, and before I can reply, she answers for me, more eloquently than I could manage anyway. "I’m buying fifty pound bags of flour so we won’t run out of bread," she says, "but the apocalypse arrived a long time ago, huh?"

6S

Elizabeth Grey is the author of the memoir Migration, forthcoming on Milkweed Editions. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

Interesting Timing

by Tim G. Young

I'm hearing Van Morrison in the distance. The music makes my feet wiggle. Makes me want to watch a pretty girl dance. Almost makes me want to dance but I'm too tired to get up. The ceiling fan above me sounds like it needs oil. As I consider the noisy fan, the music stops.

6S

Tim G. Young is an author and singer/songwriter. His latest novel, A Taste of Heaven, is on the hunt for a publisher. His music can be found here.

Love in the Age of Darkness

by Susan Isla Tepper

A boy I loved dreamt of darkness during the day. It cut into a lot of our happy time. I craved rolling grass down to a lake. Picked my feet ‘til they bled. My feet felt alone and hungry. More injuries to follow.

6S

Susan Isla Tepper is a twenty year writer in all genres. Her twelfth published book is a novel titled ‘Hair of a Fallen Angel’ from Spuyten Duyvil Press, fall of 2024. Also a Playwright and Director, Tepper recently premiered her satirical dark comedy ‘Clandestine’ in an Equity Staged Reading at EAG Guild Hall Theatre in NYC. Visit her online here.

Recurring Deer

by Lynn Kozlowski

Every time I pass through this one suburban four-lane section, I recall a large deer that had been clipped by a car. He was sitting on his butt like a giant dog begging for food. Then, he struggled to three legs and limped into a small stand of trees. Whenever passing there I see again that stricken deer dragging a useless front leg. I think about it whenever I drive by the site and no time else. Each time I see the large harmless animal damaged painfully, moving off the road into the small island of scrub trees so clearly cut off from any significant forest.

6S

Lynn Kozlowski has published in 50-Word Stories, The Zodiac Review, The Dribble Drabble Review, Bright Flash Literary Review, Friday Flash Fiction, and The Malahat Review. He has a book of short fiction, Historical Markers (Ravenna Books). He is based in Buffalo, NY, but spends considerable time in Waterloo, Ontario.

Dealing with the Man of the House

by Nifa Bulemi

I would prefer to deal directly with the man of the house. "Would you like to view the house, or the man first?" Kindly call him for me. "That might take a while, as he's not readily available at the moment. Please leave me your number, and if he ever gets back here, you'll be the first to know. You see, the liminal spaces that he currently occupies are a bit tricky to get through at such short notice."

6S

Nifa Bulemi is a writer returning to her first love.

Time to Write

by Monica Nawrocki

I enter my brain, greet my administrative assistant, and receive my printout of the day’s appointments. The protagonist of my YA novel wishes to discuss the burden of carrying POV, the story-less villain (here for the fifty-eighth day straight) is demanding placement, and a minor character from a short story wants to talk about getting their own piece. Not a bad idea, I think to myself. But this is pure fantasy, of course. In reality, there is no assistant and the waiting area is standing room only with everyone yelling at once. I sigh, grab coffee, and wander into the maelstrom.

6S

Monica Nawrocki has lived in three provinces, had five concussions, owned a Ford Pinto, and married a woman long before it was cool. Writing was inevitable. She has published four books, and her short fiction and poetry has appeared in various journals and anthologies in North America and the UK.

The Pendulum

by Delfina Barbiero

“The pendulum will swing again” they tell me assuredly. But when it does, it will knock our teeth out before making its way back to the right. Its trips to the west will get shorter and shorter. The center will continue to cry that the truth is in the middle of two opposing truths while its being pulled with little protest to its place of comfort. What is left behind is just a pile of broken teeth. And as we watch it swing, we will question “Is the pendulum even on even ground?”

6S

Delfina Barbiero is a writer from Argentina who grew up in Texas and is now in Brooklyn, New York.

Peace with Honor

by R.K. West

Granddad lives with us because Mom worries about what would happen if he had another stroke. She put a TV in his room so he could yell at the news with the door closed. Sometimes I stop by his room after school, when he is playing music from his old vinyl record collection on a turntable player he keeps on the bureau. When I told him we were studying the Vietnam War in history class, he took a sharp breath and squeezed his eyes shut for a second. “Well, fuck me,” he said. Then: “Sorry, kid, language, but Jesus Christ, couldn’t they at least wait until we’re all dead?”

6S

R.K. West lives on the west coast of North America, and has a webpage.

Linda’s Business is Business

by John Szamosi

I go to Linda’s beauty parlor appearance enhancement business once a month to get my hair done. I ain’t no beauty, and Linda’s parlor is in her garage. (To my and everybody’s knowledge, Linda runs her enterprise and drives her car and lives her entire life without licenses, permits or other governmental approval.) We often get interrupted ‘cause Linda’s also selling home-made shampoos, powerful potions and oriental spice mixes from the very garage she cuts hair. The customers bang the door five times, that’s the signal they’re coming on a purely commercial quest to purchase one of her fine products. Day in and day out, Linda and her clients flip the finger to bossy agencies, all unwanted, unneeded.

6S

John Szamosi is a wordsmith and peace activist who’s been publishing short stories, satires and poems since his freshman year in college.

Put It Back

by Kenneth M. Kapp

The smoke boasted how in his youth he was always in getting in peoples’ faces, not dispersing no matter how much hands were waved. A man challenged him to get back into the pipe from whence he came. The pipe reminded people there was a no return policy. The cleaner complained it had scraped by for years until it was brown and worn out. The smoke circled, formed a ring, and said he would show them how it was done with mirrors. The audience stood as one and made for the exits having heard all of this before.

6S

Kenneth M. Kapp lives with his wife in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, writing late at night in his man-cave. His stories have appeared in more than eighty-five publications world-wide including The Saturday Evening Post and October Hill Magazine. He enjoys chamber music and mysteries.

In the front garden

by Andrea Tillmanns

Native flowering plants and grasses, sometimes trembling from wild bees landing, butterflies taking off or field crickets jumping, always too fast for a photo. “This garden urgently needs a mowing,” says one of the women walking past with a disapproving look at our front garden, just loud enough for me to hear, and points to the burnt, short-cropped lawn next door. “That’s how it should be. That looks proper.” She still looks disapproving as the two of them seek shelter from the burning sun for a while in the shade of our old apple tree. “Really, always these weeds...”

6S

Andrea Tillmanns lives in Germany and works full-time as a university lecturer. She has been writing poetry, short stories and novels in various genres for many years. Her poems and stories have been published in diverse journals and anthologies. More information can be found on her website.

Along Comes Clementine

by Peta Meredith Williams

Joe Bartholomeuw loves his steak medium rare, with beer, potatoes and peas. For breakfast he likes black coffee at the local and maybe toast. He is unassuming, and quiet-like, some would say simple, slow, but in reality he just doesn’t wish to let on what he knows or is thinking at any given time. He works at a garden centre in a small town west of Virginia. Every morning he rises at 6 am and has his first coffee on his veranda, watching the locals start their day. He then gets ready for work and waits until 8 am when a girl named Clementine walks past on her way to the bus stop, then on seeing her, he knows his day will be just wonderful.

6S

Peta Meredith Williams is a writer, artist, and composer from Sydney, Australia.

Breaking the Brass Hourglass

by Cassandra Caverhill

Brea and I were warned that the antique wasn’t a toy. But it was kept on a reachable ledge by the basement stairs. With sweaty hands, we’d turn the hourglass over to let a bit of egg-shell sand escape through the narrowest glass, to put a few seconds back on the clock. We’d set it upside down and watch the grains fall, while we waited on the third step of the brown carpeted stairs. The bomb’s going to blow! we’d shout, before launching ourselves into the air, arms extended in flight. And as we crashed down, a million eons scattered into the soil of carpet fibers.

6S

Cassandra Caverhill is a Canadian-American poet, editor, and creative writing instructor. She’s the author of Mayflies (Finishing Line Press, 2020) and her prose and poetry have appeared internationally in journals across the US, Canada, and UK. A karaoke and cycling enthusiast, Cassandra lives in the borderlands of Windsor, Ontario. More here.

Self-Evaluation

by Lynne Lieberman

How dare they call me back into the office, after five - FIVE! - years? I get so much more work done at home without worrying about traffic, no one stopping in my cubicle to ask insipid questions they should already know the answers to. I’m their best employee and they treat me like I’m in kindergarten. I meet all my quotas in half the time of anyone else. There are plenty of companies who understand the modern working world and I will start sending out my resume today. I’ll just have lunch, throw in a load of laundry, and rest on the sofa for a bit first.

6S

Lynne Lieberman publishes short stories while working on her Great American Novel.

The Plumber

by Rachel Lentz

Water shot up from the faucet and cascaded onto the floor. The cat hissed in alarm from atop the fridge, and the plumber nimbly jumped back. “Hm, that didn’t really solve your problem,” he observed. “You think?” I asked. “Well, yeah. This is way worse than a drip,” he answered.

6S

Rachel Lentz is an Air Force veteran and clinical psychologist with a passion for haiku and flash fiction. Her haiku have been published in American and British journals. She lives in Colorado Springs with her two-legged, four-legged and dorsal-finned family.