The Ants Are Thirsty

by Amita Basu

“The rains come and sink through the grass into the earth, making the dry earth whole and filling the borewell in Eva’s flat complex.”

Trash Mammal

by Sebs Corrigan

“Aunt Lea is letting me live in the apartment above her garage on the condition that I see a psychiatrist and start therapy again.”

Flush

by Caroline Fox

“In June, I came to understand the world in terms of small geometries—the oily stains of arthropod bodies left on eggshell walls, cool cerulean prisms of bathroom tile, those spheroid yellow lights like electrodes over the bay, both real and reflected.”

From the Sea

by Al Graham

“Have you ever wondered if you’ve aided and abetted international terrorism?”

Sicko

by Persephone King

“The three wigs, a faceless jury, scrutinized me from their stands on top of the dresser.”

The Old Women and Miss Fitt

by Lynn Sloan

“This story I’m writing began almost three years ago, late summer, Rose’s back porch, we four writers overlooking her apple orchard, the sky that navy blue you get in late September this far north when the nearest streetlights are more than twenty miles away, in our county seat, pop. 1576, and the nearest city is more than a couple hundred miles.”

Kill Chain

by Adam Straus

“Lance Corporal Tyler Eustace elbows Lance Corporal Andrew Black in the ribs.”