Two Flash Essays

In a lawn chair, the river so shallow and clear, a crystal ribbon stitching together the valley floor. You look down and see granite, quartz, silt, the hollow skeletons of mayflies

2021 Best of the Net Nominees

Congratulations to all of our Best of the Net nominees!

Two Flash Essays

In the boulevard before crossing to the front steps, I’m stopped in my tracks and breath. On the porch—the wicker loveseat once your aunt’s, blue shirt, beard newly trimmed—I see you clear as day.

The Clown

You stand next to a clown, a real clown, with the painted white face and spongy red wig. He has pulled you to the front of the room, where he speaks rapid Spanish that you cannot understand. Everyone else in the room—including the Peruvian family you’ve been teaching—understands what he is saying, and laughs. All you’ve picked out is the word “Mormon.” What you understand: You are the butt of the joke. No, you are the joke.

Like a Prayer—

How the house sighed, air brim with old wood, paint, and coffee spilling from around the parlor‘s paired doors as I swung them closed, slowing before they smacked the jamb so not to rattle the jaundiced panes or disrupt the furniture we had force-fed the room—

Corona Way

The sea squirt is born with a primitive brain and one eye. It cruises the ocean, and when it finds a surface to fasten to, the squirt eats its own eye and brain. Without movement, it no longer needs them.

2020 Orison Anthology Nominees

Congratulations to all of our nominees!

2020 Best of the Net Nominees

Congratulations to all of our Best of the Net 2020 nominees!