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Angler, Wendy Maxon
“Mama was so dumb, and these gross sad little fish men who swarmed her just became her accessories. Literal accessories! They’d kiss her and nibble on her ear and then get stuck, and they’d eat off their own faces like so much candy! Like they were just Mama’s play toys!”
Changing, Margarita Serafimova
“I was a salamander endemic to the sea”
Big Problems, Aeryn Rudel
“Finally, with a terrible rattle and squeaking, the garage door rose along its track. The full fury of the morning sun shone on his tired, bloodshot eyes. He’d recently found a brewery that would supply beer by the barrel. Last night he’d finished off six.”
12.17.18, John L. Stanizzi
“Pushed east to west, the only open water purls against the ice”
Adolescent, Ashley Roth
“One night her dad comes home singing ‘Home on the Range’ and waves wiggly, bloody pieces of meat at me — says, ‘It’s venison, it’s Bambi.’ He pushes us out of the way and cradles the bass like he cradles the deer he kills, the way he probably once held her.”
Zora and the Zombie, Lauren Tivey
“It lurches into the sun-bleached yard / on dusty, cracked feet, yellow-clawed, / drab linen shift over a bony frame, limbs / reckless, akimbo, a terrifying ragdoll”