Spillwords

Tenth Life written by: Ola Kraszpulska   “Thank you for meeting with me today.” I want to laugh because she was being so formal. She insisted we meet in the bathroom, so the setting really doesn’t lend itself to a formal meeting place. It makes sense since she loves sitting right on top of the heat vent. This left me sitting on the toilet lid. “You’re very welcome,” I reply, ...

Guests on Holy Ground written by: R. Nikolas Macioci   Every Halloween, at midnight, The Ohio Poetry Association holds an open mic reading at Greenlawn Cemetery, the largest cemetery in Columbus. The event takes place in the cemetery’s mausoleum. I’ve attended each year since the event began. Within that building I hear my footsteps echo as I walk through corridors of the dea...

The Veggie Patch Trick written by: Tim Law   My name is Tessa Fiasco. I’m seven and a half, and my dad is the worst. You might think your dad is bad, but me and my older sister Tiff bet you’re wrong. Ever since that day when our mum left us, Dad has tried really hard to keep our spirits up. The only way he seems to know how is with pancakes and practical jokes. I hear you ask...

A Lodger’s Fate written by: Alan Hardy   He leans over me as I lie in bed. I’m not too scared, a bit tense, curious. Slow, laborious, back arched, he casts his eyes over me, as if inspecting me. In the shadowy stillness he is wearing the jacket he wears in the photo in pride of place on the living-room mantelpiece. To its left every night the old lady sits in her armchair, by...

Trick or Treat written by: Rosemary McKinley   The late 1960s are usually portrayed as a turbulent era highlighted by anti-war protests, drug experimentation, and anti-establishment rhetoric. It just so happens that my experience was the opposite of that. At Ladycliff College, a conservative, girls’ Catholic college adjacent to West Point, we were isolated from this extreme c...