Stones Heavy in Their Pockets by Gina Headden When Beatrice leaves the house, Daisy is asleep and Ted is blacking boots. ‘Give my love to Dolly,’ Ted calls. She keeps her mouth shut. She isn’t seeing Dolly, something Ted does…
The Writer’s House
The Writer’s House by Caroline Greene The great man is in the drawing room sitting for a portrait. We’ve had to roll up the rugs, but there’s sure to be paint for me to scrub off the parquet. He’s had…
Comfortless Cove
Comfortless Cove by Linda Walsh I grip the sides of the swaying rowing boat, my face scorched by a cold-hearted sun. Ahead is Ascension Island, Queen Victoria’s lonely outpost, lying between Africa and the New World, a desolate rock in…
It’s Raining Today
It’s Raining Today by Mark Left When I dream it is raining. That is normal, that is what it does in Poland. Rain falling in sheets like wire mesh stretched to the four horizons. Keeping me in, shutting me out…
Freedom Pass
Freedom Pass by Tamsin Cottis Jackie and me on the bus. Front seat, top deck. Number 38. Hackney Central to Victoria. Memory of this bus came with me to Hospital. German Doodlebugs screaming through clouds. Stop. Wait. Boom! Doctors said…
Down the Long, Long Line
Down the Long, Long Line by Mary-Jane Holmes Dark to light, the tunnel births the train and there’s the river’s head damned blue to reservoir, the ore rakes Da hushed lead from since the valley was drowned, the best sward…
Bedlam
2019 FlashBack Fiction Microfiction Competition: Moon First Place Bedlam by Jo Withers I sit rigid, body taut as wooden chair. Physicians unleash freezing water against flesh, hoping to exorcise hysteria. They blame the moon, say its phases corrupt menstrual cycles.…
Gene Cernan Boards the Apollo 17 Lunar Module
2019 FlashBack Fiction Microfiction Competition: Moon Second Place Gene Cernan Boards the Apollo 17 Lunar Module by Sutton Strother In his Boy Scout days, he had wandered off trail into thick woods and convinced himself that once he returned to…
Moon Burial
2019 FlashBack Fiction Microfiction Competition: Moon Third Place Moon Burial by Johanna Robinson Is it lonely up there, high as heaven? Did you once, alive, imagine looking down on us all, pinching the Earth between finger and thumb, as though…
Moon Rabbit Over Honshu
2019 FlashBack Fiction Microfiction Competition: Moon Highly Commended Moon Rabbit Over Honshu by Caroline Greene “There, now you can see it,” said Kazu’s grandmother guiding his pointing finger around the shadow-shape of a rabbit on the bright, white moon. The…