The sun rises from its eastward home 

Over the horizon

For it to warm the waves’ foam

For its rays to sparkle on the ocean’s surface

Glimmers of diamonds so special 

they can’t be for purchase

But try as it might

Not even this golden light

can bring enough warmth to the Portside Woman

Her frozen fingers hold

A piece of paper she will shakily fold 

And slip into a vial

secured with cork and prayer

...

The horses in the stable went wild; they knew of the storm to come in the early dawn. They could smell the chaos brewing in the air. They could sense the impending disaster with every crack of thunder. They reared on their hind legs as black clouds rolled in from the West, robbing the farm of a full moon’s light. In the darkness, only one thing was for certain: it wouldn’t be long until blood floo...

My tribe came from the earth. We are extensions of the ground, and ecosystems in our own right. Tangled in the vines of my hair live critters and creatures I call cousins. My body was carved from stone by a flowing river. My fingernails share the same bark as the old eucalyptus trees. Crack me open, and you’ll find soil spilling from my insides like blood. In our eyes, you’ll see the reflection of...

It was a slow Sunday morning in Gabby’s café, so as customers trickled in like the last few drops of coffee into a mug, she reviewed the pages of her latest case file. Jenna Macintosh was a five-foot-nothing scraggly blond with doe eyes so big they almost made you forget she had a habit of conning suckers for their money and skipping bail. 

“I’m gonna track you down,” she said to the most recent p...

On, and my knight slays opponents in an epic battle of justice and blood, his swift motions blurred

Off, and it’s my puppy barking at a bird

On, and I can almost hear the seagulls, smell the salt, as I gaze out at my ocean-front view

Off, and I guess a parking lot’ll have to do

On, and an orchestra appears in my living room, playing a song so sweet I get an earache

Off, and it’s my timer ringing...

Darla didn’t know exactly what she had expected a demon to look like, but it certainly wasn’t this.

“Ah shit,” the seven-foot-tall man muttered, taking in his surroundings. With the piña colada in his hand and his unbuttoned floral shirt, he looked like he belonged in Hawaii, not the Underworld, and definitely not in her living room. His skin was a sun-kissed bronze. He had a pink and yellow lei d...

_I should have stolen a broom from work last night_, I think to myself as I trudge through the storm, muddy boots slapping the sidewalk. Then I could have flown right over this mess of sideways rain and howling winds. _And_ been able to avoid the house on King Street. It’s coming up ahead now on the right; I can see the points of its steeply pitched roof peeking through dying pine trees.

The clo...

Write a story about a character and their animal companion who turns out to be their shapeshifting enemy....

Using a cemetery as the setting, write a poem or short story in which the first and last lines are the same....

Write a fictional story or poem that revolves around the question: are we truly unique, or are we mosaics of every person we’ve ever known?...