CLASSIFIED FICTION: ‘A MATTER OF TRADITION’ BY LARRY LEFKOWITZ
I had often heard it remarked that there was something unusual about the Bevin-Atleys, but when I asked precisely what, the speaker, at a loss to define it, would simply wave a hand in the air in a circular motion like some distraught falcon circling aimlessly […]
CLASSIFIED POETRY: ‘ZOETROPE’ BY BEN BARTON
Aliens have crawled across the border on their bellies Signed names in blue biro: Permits to trespass on our living quarters. We are powerless, shackled destined to watch […]
CLASSIFIED FICTION: ‘LORD OF THE DANCE’ BY SANDRA ARNOLD
Clutching her list, Liberty pushed open the library door and skidded across the floor to a startled young man behind a mahogany desk. She waved her list and asked where she should look. He pointed to the top floor, where people were drifting […]
CLASSIFIED ARTWORK: ‘VANISHING HOPES I’ BY EMMANUEL MONZIES
Emmanuel Monziès is transposing living material like plants and bodies on paper or on canvas with a predilection for monotypes. Runner-up for the next Creative Quarterly #54 journal (November 2018 for publication in April 2019) […]
CLASSIFIED FICTION: ‘TRUTH MAY RISE IN THE CREAMY FROTH OF THE NEXT BEER’ BY SALLY RYHANEN
If there is a patron saint for the evil of heart, she must be Irish. There was my target, dangling upside down from a rustic lighthouse, begging to be rescued. Smack in front of an Irish pub. Sanderson’s regular position, according to the barman of the Shamrock Hotel […]
CLASSIFIED POETRY: ‘THE SECOND QUESTION’ BY MIKE TOOK
I’m a non-British resident, transgender working pensioner I’m a means-tested, mixed race, unpaid contracted support-worker I’m a non-white, gender fluid, single parent lesbian I’m a child of Muslim parents, asexual, agnostic […]
CLASSIFIED NON-FICTION: ‘A CASUAL SUNDAY TOURIST’ BY LAZARUS TRUBMAN
As I get older, people and events disappear from my memory, but some, thank goodness, stay there forever. Like the story of a murder I never committed. It was in 1980, a Sunday at the end of February or in the beginning of March. I was in the Army reserve […]
CLASSIFIED POETRY: ‘BORDERLINES’ BY MICHAEL SAUNDERSON
1972 EAST Harvesting rice near the borderline, sedentary spine smarts from paddy field graft. Sore calloused hands gesticulate in cultural exchange over cabbage bowls. Borderline conscious counting stars […]
CLASSIFIED NON-FICTION: ‘SUITEMATES’ BY BOB CHIKOS
The night my son Martin was born, I had the emotions most new fathers likely have, but few will admit: 10% joy and 90% sheer panic. I remember my thoughts: I don’t know anything about this person and he’s going to live with us for a loooong time. […]
CLASSIFIED FICTION: ‘BAG FOR LIFE’ BY AARON FARRELL
Bag for Life Aaron Farrell Inside the Aldi’s Bag for Life – either a sadistic joke, as this plastic will probably end a life, or just a plain lie as nothing is for life apart from the craving for something that lasts for life – is my...