Furry Friends

The park is filled with pets. It’s a hot summer day and I can feel the perspiration on my back. I come here every week to watch the dogs run and play, catching frisbees. It’s comical when one small dog grabs the frisbee and runs away under the tree when the owner is waiting.

You can see in the kids’ and parents’ faces, how their dogs make the family complete with their huge smiles, laughter and affection toward their hairy friends.

I didn’t realize the time. I must leave for an important appointment.

A new furry companion awaits my arrival.

From Guest Contributor Lisa M. Scuderi-Burkimsher

Release The Hounds

The mob surrounded the exterior fence, wielding an array of weaponry, everything from baseball bats and hockey sticks to handguns and automatic weapons. Policy that made a lot of sense when the ire was directed at the liberal elites now seemed short-sighted.

"Thomas, let's see what they think of our dogs."

"Very good, sir."

He'd imported a dozen trained attack dogs from Israel. Not enough to fend off a hundred armed individuals, but he found it hard to believe these peasants were prepared to shoot an animal.

The barks dissipated faster than he expected.

"They came prepared, sir. With steaks."

Gross Malpractice

No one had ever seen so many lawyers in one place before. It seemed their number was approaching infinity, but only because the sight was truly incomprehensible.

"I'm afraid we have some bad news. Our move to dismiss was rejected."

"You assured me the case had no legal basis."

"Yes, but that was before the issue of dogs was introduced. People seem pretty upset they don't live at least as long as people."

"The term gross malpractice is beginning to be bandied about."

God shook his head regretfully. Maybe the whole creation thing should have been more carefully thought out.

These Dogs

are barking, she says, as she kicks off her scuffed dancing pumps and falls into the couch cushions. What a strange word: couch. Now, the television remote. Later, a Marie Callender’s pot pie. Turkey. In between now and later, a man pounds at the door—Beverly, he says. I know you’re there. Answer me. Thirty years ago, she would have. She would‘ve let him convince her to come back home, to try again. For the children, now grown. For him. Instead, she pours tea and peers between the blinds. She watches his breath condense, useless, and spill into the night.

From Guest Contributor Carrie Cook

Carrie received her MA in Creative Writing from Kansas State University and is currently living in Colorado. Her work has appeared in The Columbia Review, Midwestern Gothic, Menacing Hedge, and Bartleby Snopes.

A Routine

The morning light was still dim, but the streetlamp sufficiently illuminated the permanent marker slipping down the glass door of my cafe like eels: STOP EATING DOGS.

I felt my fingers dig into my palm, pressure building between my clenched teeth. I looked around—no cameras, as usual. I kept reminding myself to get one but I never did.

A heavy sigh fogged the glass as I unlocked the door and tramped to where the cleaning supplies were kept. “The fact that I’m Asian doesn’t make me a dog-eater,” I muttered, but once again, there was no one to hear me.

From Guest Contributor Rina Olsen

Rina is a Korean-American teen writer living on Guam. Her work has either appeared in or is forthcoming in Jellyfish Review, Dreams and Nightmares, 101 Words, Nano Fiction, Friday Flash Fiction, and Mobius: A Journal of Social Change, among other places.

Rationale

Summer has been washed and hung to dry across the equinox. Quibble gathers the last of his alien friends for a farewell. To feast, they eat the neighbor’s two loudest dogs. Those dogs kept Quibble away at night barking at wishes and dreams. Quibble does not partake of the meat, but he imagines the joy the aliens conclude. At the end of the farewell celebration, the aliens open a portal between the shed and fence line and fall one by one through. Quibble only mentions the aliens when his neighbor tries to blame him for the disappearance of the dogs.

From Guest Contributor Ken Poyner

Peggy Is A Piece Of Work

Peggy is a piece of work. Only Joanie knows. While she would be happy to talk, she's not about to volunteer just how big a piece and what kind of work. So Joanie shoves it to the back corner of her mind so that it only appears when Peggy does. Then it explodes and she has to cheek her tongue—Peggy is a piece of work—and shove it back. It was Peggy that sicced them dogs on Marianne. That was some job. It was Peggy that sicced them girls on that young SOB. So sicced, Joanie catches her breath.

From Guest Contributor Rick Henry

Rick's most recent? "The Other Daughters," an audio production a performance poem featuring 120 contributing voices.

Declaration Of War

The noon sun was a blazing red ember in an ashen sky. It was all anyone could talk about. Even the dogs of the kingdom were going crazy, whining and running in circles and hypersalivating. Meanwhile, on the birthing table, the Red Queen, her knees up, her legs spread apart, her multiple chins trembling, pushed and pushed and then pushed again. Music – Wagner or perhaps Sousa, something rousing – came thundering out of her. She was like a little brass ensemble playing mightily. The royal physician remained strangely calm, as though thinking, “OK, why not?” Blood had never looked so red.

From Guest Contributor Howie Good

Howie is the author of more than a dozen poetry collections, including most recently Gunmetal Sky (Thirty West Publishing).

Than Anything Else

I asked him about the authors that influenced him.

He shrugged the question away.

"I'm more embarrassed by the story than anything else. Let it die."

"Than anything else," I thought. And again "Let it die." What was that anything else?

He was at the wood stove again, apparently indicating that was it, the interview was over.

"Walkside, strophanthin, and the adult bookstore," I said, trying to be delicate. "I'm not saying you didn't make things up, but..."

He spun quickly, poker in his hand. The dogs' heads jerked up.

"What do you want from me?"

The interview was over.

From Guest Contributor Rick Henry

Daddy's Little Girl

His little girl called and said that she was getting married.

When he first held her she weighed about as much as two large apples. He was told it could be only hours so say goodbye.

Hours turned into days and then years.

His wife never wanted to try again so his little girl would be the only one that went to see the Yankees with him and share the dogs, the overloaded nachos, the wings, sundaes, and when she was old enough, the brewskis.

"How do I look, Daddy?" The gown was perfect for her 400 pounds.

"Beautiful, Baby."

From Guest Contributor E. Barnes