evening star

by boscoe martindale

illustrated by konrad kraus

a thought

by mary c fogg

illustrated by rhoda penmarq

it was a beautiful blue day, with a few puffy white clouds. the trees and flowers were in bloom. i have never seen such a beautiful day, thought erinda. and i don't have a care in the world. i am so glad i retired. in fact, this is it. it doesn't get any better than this. this is as happy as i have ever been, or will be. and then she remembered. mother was dead. father was dead. estelle and william and aunt margaret and aunt sylvia were all dead. her cats ruby and opal were long gone. they were all gone, and here she was thinking she had never been so happy. what a truly terrible thing to think. but she had thought the thought. she couldn't take it back.

then and now

by horace p sternwall

illustrations by eddie el greco

through a dark and deepening haze i remember the good old days when saints and idolators had it out with many a lusty warlike shout and left each other with piles of dead shafted bodies and severed heads heroes stood above the fray and only the gallant survived the day now humans fight by other means seated in front of laptop screens the saints are red and the infidels blue and no one really knows who is who libtard, biblethumper, neanderthal, perv, creep the insults flicker in the wireless deep where saints once battled for immortal souls you hear only the echoes of lonely trolls