She is a student of economics at the Saint Petersburg university, Russia. Without knowing why, we talk about the global economic crisis. She says that’s a serious situation but it seems like all the investors in her country and in the rest of the world are just waiting … “waiting for what?” I ask. “The next big thing to get out of this situation” she says.

economic slump
a manager calls
for his horoscope

Andrea Cecon

Dark night
yellow squares flicker
through bare trees,
the sound of a tornado
on cold steel,
the scream from nowhere,
a flashing red bumblebee light moves across the sky,
flatlined—

Sunday matinee—
buttered popcorn &
an empty box of Milk Duds

Susan Beth Furst

Entering, I contemplate the horseshoes on the doors … and if he had invited me only to ward off the misfortune that brings with it being in thirteen at the table?

autumn wind –
we pronounce words
without weighing them

Antonietta Losito

Alice was always such a pleasant lady bringing in her baking efforts to please colleagues. The latest cupcakes were a summer special, delicately topped off with iced butterflies in vivid hues of scarlet and blue. But as Tom bit into his, the butterfly slid onto the carpet. Alice was crestfallen, a tear smearing her black eye shadow.

office laughter
the voices in her head
louder than before

Come Halloween, Alice brought in a new tray of cupcakes all decked with an intricately iced death’s head hawk-moth. The skull markings were unnervingly accurate, chocolate chips concealed deep within. Tom was the first to tuck in….

first mouthful
a sickly sweet smile
on her lips

Tim Gardiner