“She’s waiting for me," you say. You say this knowing you are breaking the now. Knowing that the now is all we have left. I tell you that wait is a future word, and I’d appreciate you not using it. @francinewitte.bsky.social @lit-namjooning.bsky.social literarynamjooning.wixsite.com/litnam/post/...

“We aren’t happy, but we aren’t sad either, we’re halfway sad when you hold me and you tell me, *I’m here*, but we could have been sadder if we knew that soon you wouldn’t be.” @happilander.bsky.social in @lit-namjooning.bsky.social literarynamjooning.wixsite.com/litnam/post/...

“… and you stand while this whole world whirls around you, muscles you didn’t know you had singing a wild chorus …” @writesofkathryn.bsky.social in @lit-namjooning.bsky.social literarynamjooning.wixsite.com/litnam/post/...

“I seek castles and walk in mumbles …” “... and round and round and round I go until I am a mouse on a boat sailing to a land tucked away in my mind where no one can venture. Not even me …” Shome Dasgupta in @lit-namjooning.bsky.social literarynamjooning.wixsite.com/litnam/post/...

“If you can’t find love, there is always parchment.” @kathrynreese.bsky.social in @lit-namjooning.bsky.social literarynamjooning.wixsite.com/litnam/post/...

“You must conclude that the path up is never the same as the path down, no matter how careful you are to tread in your same footsteps.” @bronwengriffiths.bsky.social in @lit-namjooning.bsky.social literarynamjooning.wixsite.com/litnam/post/...

“… the sea doesn’t just go away. Place your hand here and listen. Even if you can’t see it, it’s always there. Listen closer.” @mizukiyamagen.bsky.social in @lit-namjooning.bsky.social literarynamjooning.wixsite.com/litnam/post/...

“We ignore the hateful yard signs and tell ourselves we belong here.” @thorntonforreal.bsky.social in @lit-namjooning.bsky.social literarynamjooning.wixsite.com/litnam/post/...

“The kitchen will be hot—so will you, a-flash, perspiration on your lip. [Tenderness takes a while.]" @elinorann.bsky.social in @literaryruby.bsky.social rubyliterarypress.com/issue-six-is...

“One of them, a woman who sits two desks away, whose email sign off is ‘hugs,’ who is in the midst of a messy divorce, is eating a donut. *Her first?* Morgan wonders.” Nora Esme Wagner with two in @literaryruby.bsky.social rubyliterarypress.com/issue-six-is...

“What Monica’s husband doesn’t understand is that when he’s an asshole, it takes a while for Monica to bounce back. What he doesn’t understand is these slights embed themselves into her like splinters.” @kimmagowan.bsky.social with 2 @literaryruby.bsky.social rubyliterarypress.com/issue-six-is...

“They’re halfway back down the hill when she answers. ‘We’re stronger than you think, my man.’” @tcboudreau.bsky.social in @literaryruby.bsky.social rubyliterarypress.com/issue-six-is...

“Lola never pronounces hello, and instead she welcomes him with, *Kumain ka na ba Moymoy? Have you eaten yet Moymoy*” Joefel Bolo in @literaryruby.bsky.social rubyliterarypress.com/issue-six-is...

“I should have called first. I should have come sooner. Should have pressed Moisés for details about the progression of his illness.” “I remember the sun was slanting in, winter-thin.” @patriciaqbidar.bsky.social in @literaryruby.bsky.social rubyliterarypress.com/issue-six-is...

“Don’t be the woman who is afraid.” “Be the woman who …” “Be the woman with a lover who …” @allisonfieldbell.bsky.social in @literaryruby.bsky.social rubyliterarypress.com/issue-six-is...

“I imagine bringing Rod into this group, I imagine him sitting cross-legged on the floor with us. I imagine him sharing my surreal experience, a melding of 90’s food, music, culture.” @sudhab.bsky.social in @literaryruby.bsky.social rubyliterarypress.com/issue-six-is...

“She turns herself upright but otherwise remains still, like she’s choosing whether to give up or go on. It takes a moment to regain your bearings when you survive. To recalculate your odds.” @andreabishop.bsky.social in @psmokejournal.bsky.social www.peatsmokejournal.com/summer-2025-...

“Birds come here from many places, with different habits, different plumages, different songs” @melissafitz.bsky.social in @crucialcomix.bsky.social www.crucialcomix.com/comic/birds-...

“I didn’t understand how sometimes people die before they die.” “When I saw him, I did and did not know it was the last time.” “I think I’ll come back here again and again. But …” @allisonfieldbell.bsky.social in @jmwwjournal.bsky.social jmwwblog.wordpress.com/2025/09/04/c...

“Angela’s mom suggests that I make a list of the things I am responsible for. It should be present tense.” "This was the last person to leave her, but I was still the last to fail her." @nathanwillis.bsky.social @reckonreview.bsky.social reckonreview.com/working-titl...

“… We inhale, exhale, we breathe and we smile and we glow, like we’re safe and we have all the time in the world and everything isn’t dark and ruined and pointless, but …” @happilander.bsky.social in @gooseberrypielit.bsky.social gooseberry-pie.com/everything-r...

“… pushes his flask in my face, says, *I never drink alone, sweetheart!* I clamp my earphones on, stare at my book. His shoulder keeps bumping mine, *oops, oops, oops.*” @kathrynsilverhajo.bsky.social in @gooseberrypielit.bsky.social gooseberry-pie.com/boston-to-ne...

“… because everyone knows pigtails and pinafores belong in Kansas (said The Man.)” @charhamrick.bsky.social in @gooseberrypielit.bsky.social gooseberry-pie.com/glinda-was-n...

“Tell her that you love hearing stories about how she rode around town with Muffin in the basket of her bike, matching ribbons streaming from her hair and Muffin’s ears.” @lisaferranti.bsky.social in @fictivedream.bsky.social bsky.app/profile/fict... fictivedream.com/2025/09/01/m...

“He fixes what’s broken, then he vanishes into the past without even saying goodbye, and we’re grateful for the work, but we feel lonely without him.” @happilander.bsky.social in @bloodhoneylit.bsky.social www.bloodhoneylit.com/mileva-anast...

“He’d make a trade with the weeping boy. A toe for a toe, a spell to reach the forest’s edge. A promise to never return.” @lkardos.bsky.social in @gonelawn.bsky.social gonelawn.net/journal/issu...

"and she is writhing formless through the worlds, stars, tears shimmering, inner space, strobe lights, angels” Persephone and the Boy Angel of Romford by @kathrynreese.bsky.social and @pleomorphic2.bsky.social in @gonelawn.bsky.social gonelawn.net/journal/issu...

“… before we knew hopelessness, she considered seducing him. *He doesn’t deserve you,* I told her. *True*, she said, *but if I could please him in some way…’” @jamybond.bsky.social in Ghost Parachute ghostparachute.com/issue/septem...

“‘I want to buy your soul,’ he said, leaning close because of the noise, and she laughed. ‘Seriously?’ she said. “Does that line work for you?’” @jacqdoyle.bsky.social in Ghost Parachute ghostparachute.com/issue/septem...

“I would be the spider woman, ensnaring them in my web. I wouldn’t be the one wrapped in thread, left hanging. A trophy caught but no longer wanted.” @writesofkathryn.bsky.social in Ghost Parachute ghostparachute.com/issue/septem...

“Even the jogger—the last person to see the girl alive—who passed her on the bridge right there—right there! —on the CCTV camera video later aired in a loop on the local news—only remembered an indistinct presence …” @dawnwriter.bsky.social in @pitheadchapel.bsky.social pitheadchapel.com/blur/

“Be quick. Quick. Quick. And weigh each ounce careful. Careful. Careful. Even though you only know pounds.” @lumchanmfa.bsky.social in @claudineliterary.bsky.social www.claudineliterary.net/melissallane...

“The doctor touches my hand. ‘You’re going to be a whole new woman.’” an “*April in Paris* Doris Day,” a “great candidate,” a “really good sport” and the kind of surprise that can and can’t (but can) be sized up @kathyfish.bsky.social in Hot Flash Literary hotflashliterary.com/wyoming/

“… and from this new place erupted all the words that she’d stored up until they turned to lava inside her and volcanoed out …” “Not” and “Because” and @sfreligh.bsky.social in @doesithavepockets.bsky.social www.doesithavepockets.com/fiction/sara...

“One of those forbidden boys sends you hidden lyrics, saying you are both alive, even if you are not seen for who you really are.” “The band plays a song about an untouched girl who shatters like glass because ...” @pleomorphic2.bsky.social in @nffr.bsky.social newflashfiction.com/i-know-somed...

“Milwaukee. April 5th. A belt. A fixture. Three lovers.” “Breaking news. Errands. Delays. ‘I can’t do this.’ Two lovers.” Because everything counts. Three Belts by @kathyfish.bsky.social in (Re): An Ideas Journal reideasjournal.com/kathyfishfic...

“The first step is to take it slow, even though Bri looks particularly brittle from this angle, where the light hits her bones in all their protrusions …” @dango-ramen.bsky.social in @matchbooklitmag.bsky.social www.matchbooklitmag.com/mb/zhang/mea...

“My earnestness embarrassed me.” “Decades later, the chronology is a bit of a jumble. But not the pain I felt.” @claudiamonpere.bsky.social in @flightlit.bsky.social flight-literary.ghost.io/claudia-monp...

“Once, you brutalized me. Now you are an old man on a dismal patio in the same stucco neighborhood as before.” @patriciaqbidar.bsky.social in Flash the Court flashthecourt.com/2025/08/15/b...

“… as Mae would tell me whenever she detected skepticism, ‘What do I care about impressing you? Who are you, sweetheart?’” @anniejowrites.bsky.social in @doricliterary.bsky.social doric-literary.com/2025/08/15/m...

“… there are no others here, only me, a dying flashlight, and the weight of my thoughts on this track.” @sugarpigblog.bsky.social in @templeinacity.bsky.social templeinacity.com/creative-non...

“We sat up in bed one velvet midnight, each of us having been struck by the same lightning bolt. I know what we need!, we exclaimed in one voice.” “I was hoping for a glimpse of his face. A glimpse of our future.” @janstinchcomb.bsky.social in Monkeybicycle monkeybicycle.net/little-devil/

“Maybe they did walk into a bar, maybe on the way they said *You know what? Screw this* and now they’re sitting at a corner table in facepaint and finery, gulping Budweiser and ...” @didiwood.bsky.social in @mrbullbull.bsky.social mrbullbull.com/newbull/flas...

“A child does a spit-take. A woman has a croissant halfway to her mouth. And you are unimpressed, chewing this pumpkin spice nightmare coffee cake. How long do these things usually last?” @chelseastickle.bsky.social in @mrbullbull.bsky.social mrbullbull.com/newbull/flas...

“Riffing on each other. It was fun, I think, or not. Maybe the truth is.." “When people are sad or broken, you aren’t supposed to make them feel better. You’re supposed to be like, ‘Shit’s fucked, and I see you.’” @stephanieaustin.bsky.social @mrbullbull.bsky.social mrbullbull.com/newbull/fict...

“... and says wow, look at that, look at your wife, face up and coatless making snow angels and you know you should go to her, get her out of there, but it’s beautiful in a terrible kind of way ...” @sfreligh.bsky.social in @mrbullbull.bsky.social mrbullbull.com/newbull/flas...

"How the cemetery became a refuge one month after our classmate’s death. How the police called it accidental. How her quarterback ex came to school with scratches on his cheeks the day after her drowning. How ..." @lkardos.bsky.social in Milk Candy Review milkcandyreview.home.blog/2025/08/14/w...

"... for some reason I feel this grants me false permission to be ugly with her and my perceived ugliness adds its own barrier between Kate and I because I feel she is so beautiful and good ..." @paulwrites7.bsky.social in @adroitjournal.bsky.social theadroitjournal.org/issue-fifty-...

"... you found my hand, made my heart somersault. 'Can’t leave you behind,' you said." @sudhab.bsky.social in @adroitjournal.bsky.social theadroitjournal.org/issue-fifty-...

"What people meant by hardest was how cold. What I meant about worst was how alone." "Last summer everything felt different. Back then all we saw coming was hope." @lateration.bsky.social in @agnimagazine.bsky.social agnionline.bu.edu/fiction/hard...