thwack

thwack

HIRAETH by Paul Joseph Enea

HIRAETH by Paul Joseph Enea

Paul Joseph EneaHIRAETH Ever since she’s lived in the village, Hanna’s floor fan sounds more like static than white noise. She’s certain the static taints her dreams, which used to be innovative, like prestige television. But these days her dreams…

IN-LAWS by Laura Tanenbaum

Laura TanenbaumIN-LAWS “In five years, I’m going to fall in love with a fish,” the four-year-old declares, over hard-boiled eggs, on a ninety-degree day, to no one in particular. “They will be rainbow-colored with gray and black stripes. I will…

THE EGG by Dawn Miller

Dawn MillerTHE EGG Third Place, Cleaver 2022 Flash Competition “The Egg” is a story of conjugal love gone rotten. In this frightening study of betrayal, the author’s fine use of startling and original metaphor is something that knocked me out.…

INCENDIES by Fannie H. Gray

INCENDIES by Fannie H. Gray

Fannie H. GrayINCENDIES On our honeymoon, I never even noticed an acrid smell. The langoustines, the salade gourmande, the tartare de boeuf, the shimmering, perspiring glasses of sublime rosé, all served with the efficient careless attention which is inherently French.…

PEACOCKS by Andrew Stancek

PEACOCKS by Andrew Stancek

Andrew StancekPEACOCKS The show we are not watching is on Buddhism. Your hand dips absently into the plastic bowl of Colonel Redenbacher’s; my ketchup chips are long gone. The Knicks are playing the Lakers, but I don’t suggest switching the…

FIRST CHOICE by Hannah Felt Garner

FIRST CHOICE by Hannah Felt Garner

Hannah Felt GarnerFIRST CHOICE It is fall break when we arrive on campus for the interview. No one around but the student workers in Admissions and a security guard in a golf cart, silently cruising under heritage elms. My father…

EIGHTEEN by Alison Sanders

Alison SandersEIGHTEEN I hear her in the shower. There’s a gulping sound like she’s drinking straight from the faucet, or she’s trying to but she can’t keep up because the water is coming way too fast. It sounds like she’s…

FOR PHIL by Michelle Bitting

Michelle BittingFOR PHIL All day we’ve bent like Benedictine monks over armoires and bookshelves, rubbing the house clean of grime and wicked thick dust, pausing but once to drop our robes and oil each other bright as snakes entwined in…

MELT by Candice Morrow

Candice MorrowMELT A record high, the porch thermometer reads one hundred and nine, and your father sleeps naked without even a sheet. You left for college yesterday, and I suppose this means, among other things, that we can sprawl exposed…

ENOUGH FISH by Josh Krigman

ENOUGH FISH by Josh Krigman

Josh KrigmanENOUGH FISH The important thing was whether she had enough fish. Rose stared at the open refrigerator, its fluorescent-lit innards threatening to overflow. Stacks of plastic containers and tinfoil-covered dishes formed a towering puzzle without a single piece missing.…

DEBT OF A DAUGHTER by Devon Raymond

Devon RaymondDEBT OF A DAUGHTER A man who is your father tricks you into believing that there is no price to pay for being his favorite—that you are free to accept all of his attention, and presents, and praise. So…

O by Varun Shetty

Varun ShettyO It is a circle, a cipher, the opposite of something. It is formed by an old man’s lips parted midbreath. It is an absence held in the valley of his mouth. It is unmoved even with an endotracheal…

GRAND SLAM by Alison Lubar

GRAND SLAM by Alison Lubar

Alison LubarGRAND SLAM Tacoma WA, 1939 Jack takes a baseball bat to the river. August spawning season. …………….The dry rocktops steam like the belly of a monster cut open. …………….Unlaces right boot, then left, pulls them off without sitting and…

HAUNTING VIVIAN by Amy Savage

Amy SavageHAUNTING VIVIAN The first ex to haunt Vivian waits until she’s left her bar stool to use the restroom. On return, she finds his embossed business card cowering next to her martini, the bumpy letters of his name like…

FAVOR by Kim Magowan

Kim MagowanFAVOR Liam, Emailing because I just heard that you and Genevieve split up, so I wanted to reach out and say—well, I was going to say how sorry I am. But that isn’t entirely truthful. At any rate, I’m…

OFF by Suphil Lee Park

Suphil Lee ParkOFF You wake up in complete darkness. It is the kind of darkness that strikes you as a jolt of realization that you’ve never found yourself in complete darkness up until that very moment, not that terrifying night…

34 FEET by Phil Keeling

Phil Keeling34 FEET The gun was small and snub-nosed. It looked heavy, though, attached to the lanky arm of my mugger. Imagine it. Me! With my very own personal mugger. Because in that moment, he was mine and I was…

SHOOTING BUCK by Lydia Downey

Lydia DowneySHOOTING BUCK Peeking around the cliff, I meet my father’s eyes. The horizon’s glowing haze & morbid curiosity as I stretch my palm over the Tetons to haul the buck back to safety from the metal clicks of huddled…

THAW by John Schneider

THAW by John Schneider

John SchneiderTHAW Still burdened with winter’s whiteness ………….and the darkness of prolonged nights, we gaze out at our world through glazed windows. ………….This is the time of year for crusted glass, cold reflections.  Again, my aging eyes ………….look back at…

AN EASIER STORY by Emily Parzybok

AN EASIER STORY by Emily Parzybok

Emily ParzybokAN EASIER STORY Around the time I had an abortion, the bathroom drain gave up entirely. For months, the drain had been slow-moving. I’d find myself in an inch of water at the end of a shower, shaking my…

DRUNKDADDY by Francine Witte

Francine WitteDRUNKDADDY Punches a hole in the cakey window. The hole is the size of a woman’s head. My mother’s head. Tells the window, good, now you are broken, too. Blames the window for being so gooked up with grime…

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