By Erica Macri My grandfather wants fancy tail guppies: three male, two female. I get in the car with Joe, his dutiful son and my father, and before I can blink, he speeds onto the Long Island Expressway. Joe is talking about fish, positing that the females of the species have the fancy tails. I … Continue reading The Fish Store
Submerged Values
By Thomas E. Simmons Released in 1997, Titanic1 casts massive shadows. The film’s title mimics the gargantuan scale of the eponymous ocean liner herself (displacing 52,000 tons), the scope of her disastrous finish (the deadliest peacetime ship-sinking in history), and the film’s swollen budget (at $200 million, the most expensive film ever made at the … Continue reading Submerged Values
Sun Tzu and Entertainment: Strawberry Panic’s Etoile Competition
By Andrew Nickerson Throughout history, Sun Tzu’s The Art of War has been used to explain numerous different outcome types. Battlefields, sports competitions, politics, and even business dealings have been analyzed/dissected via this legendary master of tactics and strategy. However, there’s one realm of reality that hasn’t been broached with this type of analysis until … Continue reading Sun Tzu and Entertainment: Strawberry Panic’s Etoile Competition
Soneto XIII de Via Lactea by Olavo Bilac
Translated from Portuguese by Bernardo Villela Translator's Note: “Sonnet XIII” by Olavo Bilac was originally published in 1888 is one of the best known and highly regarded poetical works in the Portuguese language. Olavo Bilac (December 16, 1865 – December 28, 1918) was a Brazilian Parnassian poet, journalist and translator. Alongside Alberto de Oliveira and … Continue reading Soneto XIII de Via Lactea by Olavo Bilac
Under the Spell of Love
By Alex Andy Phuong A romantic retreatCan be a real treat,Especially since A sense of passionPuts love into action,And fall under the spellOf wishes from a wishing well,For time will tellIf love could withstandThe test of time,And never underestimate How love is sublime,And the way toAppreciate todayComes from the loss of hate,So choose to love … Continue reading Under the Spell of Love
The Swamp Witch
By Thom Schilling Gray and windy, the last ghosts of winter spit sleet from the mid-March sky. Bored senseless, my best friend Paul and I spent the last hour depositing quarters in an industrial-sized dryer in the only laundromat in town. If you wore heavy leather gloves and braced yourself against the barrel, you could … Continue reading The Swamp Witch
A Black Belt in Action
By Lewis Brett Smiler The tournament was more than a month away, but Mrs. Holland could not help feeling excited. Her grandson Gary would be competing for the first time as a black belt. The fifteen-year-old was determined to win the top prize in sparring, but his opponents would be tougher than before. He would … Continue reading A Black Belt in Action
On the night I had hot dogs and baked beans for dinner
By Susan Kolon Previously published in Gnashing Teeth Publishing's September 2024 issue It was your birthday, little sister. You got a new bike, sheened in lustful boysenberry, tassels hanging from sky-high handlebarsand I was jealous. You let me boss you when we played, I had tobeat you, always. One night I staged a race, hurried … Continue reading On the night I had hot dogs and baked beans for dinner
Seasons of Change
By Casper Orr Cycles encapsulate a multitude of things;the seasons, circles of the lives of monarchs,and my unstable self-image,ever-changing with the yellow leaves in autumn.Cycles bring change.If the whisper of it from past my shoulder did not paralyze me,I’d be in several different places at once, scattered in winter squalls.Change surges waves of intrusions into … Continue reading Seasons of Change
Birthday Surprises
By Roger Funston I’m watching traditional German folk dancing on my 70th birthday today (May 5, 2024) at a German social club in Sacramento, California. Men and women in traditional German garb perform the Maypole Dance. We arrive at the opening, spy an amazing display of desserts laid out on a table and go directly … Continue reading Birthday Surprises
Academy of the Heart And Mind 