Release

After much negotiation and studied reluctance, we free the POWs.  Their faces display weary relief—no sign of the latent virus. Now we wait.

© 2009 Opal Castmin

Making the Record Book, at Any Cost

It didn’t take Guinness long to regret the new category, “Most Self-Inflicted Gunshot Wounds”.

© 2009 Robert Laughlin

Finished

She tells me it’s not the machine’s fault, but the man’s. When my computer explodes on the parking lot after a lengthy free fall, I agree.

© 2009 Mel Bosworth

Every Day, Always

We ice fish on the pond in Maine every winter. Sitting on metal chairs, we doze at slack lines, laugh at tension. “If only,” he always says.

© 2009 Mel Bosworth

Painted Love

A desperate energy flows from the canvas of a lonely man in Victorian garb to a painting nearby of a beautiful woman and sleeping children.

© 2009 Eric Richens