By Tantra Bensko

The Boy Who's a Floating Flower

~Editor's Prize Winner~

“ We begin. Swirling like a backwards somersault off a swing, landing in a pool of water, sending ripples beyond all knowledge of time. ”

By Alan Davis

Ding Dong Ditch

“ 'In my opinion, I’m a free woman.' At just that instant the doorbell rang. It was past midnight. Who could it be? Outside, her stoop was empty. ”

By Tom Deiker

Preaching to a Naked Congregation

“ Father Hilgard scanned the congregation, relieved to find no more naked worshipers. Many looked nervously from the priest to each other as the silence wore on. ”

By Jim Esch

The 4th Horseman

“ so what cried the horseman, the just shall be judged by the haunted men, and the round world will roll one more time in the now . . . ”

By Kathryn Gossow

Dance Home

“ The old aboriginal lady is not welcome in the shop. He doesn’t know why, but he can see it in the faces around him. She leans down close to him.  'Where you from, boy?' ”

By Daniel Hudon

The Birth of the Universe

“ Everyone was talking about these universes that chaotically popped into existence, and now was our chance to see one. ”

By Dorothee Lang

Arrividerci

“ . . . for this moment, they belong, in ways you can only belong when you are out there, in this realm of passages, of crossings, of changing horizons. ”

By Catherine J.S. Lee

Random Talisman

“ It seems preposterous, too coincidental, that you would end up standing here at this exact spot at this exact moment when the ocean scraped the sand to reveal a hidden treasure. ”

By Patricia Parkinson

Illumination

“ 'You are light.'  Samm wonders what this means.  'Light. Who is light? And how did this note end up on Cay’s night table?' ”

By Beth Thomas

Cup of Earth

“ . . . my father was not much of a believer in unworldly things like God and spirits and souls of humans. He believed in regular things like oil changes and blue Ford tractors . . . ”