-the Editors]

Rob Rosen: Megalomaniac [?What the hell?? I said, as I checked the calendar. ?Not my birthday, not our anniversary, not even Groundhog?s Day. He must be having an affair.?]

Ethersmith: Dead in the Eye [This was all taking place in front of me. I was probably about thirty feet from her, standing awe struck, staring at her. She didn't know I was there.]

Jennifer Neal: A Bad Trip [ What I saw could've possibly been nightmare quality. There was Lillian, naked from the waist up slamming a baseball bat into a framed picture of Elvis Presley over and over again.]

Bridgett Gayle: Fortinbras [Hamlet is a jerk. A grade A male passive-aggressor. He lets Ophelia pine over him, takes her virginity (which she kept just for him), fools her into thinking he loves her, and then dumps her.]

Samuel Nathan Owdog: The Weatherman [Even when he was young, Lance could write the weather so tomorrow would always be a pleasant day for the quiet town folk of McPezheadville.]

Bruce Mosier: Essentials [While walking home one afternoon, Roger noticed a brown shoe on a corner. It was a man?s dress shoe, worn enough to be broken in but not so worn as to be a throwaway.]

Jack Galmitz: Crossing Home [He tried his keys on the front door, but they didn?t work. What?s this? he wondered. What goes on? Then he rang the bell. A stranger?s face leaned out from the window of the house and asked him what he wanted.]

Ethersmith: Pantheon [ I am the idea that I am a cognizant, self aware idea and that I am both communicating to you and feeding upon you.]

Adam Stauthamer: Crossing Inca [The crimson creek disappeared and I thought of Halloween, how was it now in New York? I remembered my first week in NYC and the costumes me and my compatriots threw together from piss stained bed sheets found at the Salvation Army.]

Jack Galmitz: Monkey Moon [He said he had none, but then they grabbed for him and, of course, his hands instinctively flew to what he was protecting and then they knew where the money was hidden.]

Randall DeVallance: An Ineloquent Response [Roger and Tammy were on the third day of their vacation, which, happened to be the day of their tenth wedding anniversary. Roger rewound the years in his head and found no pleasant memories, or rather, no memories that stood out at all.]

Eric Neyer: -From The Klaus Files [Yes, I killed Santa Claus! After chasing him over the length and breadth of the world, I had his jolly little habits pretty well documented.]

Nate Holdren: Fly Away [I blame Bob Mould. And the drugs I guess. Yeah Marcus and me did make some decisions but I?m feeling fragile so I'm not gonna spend too much time thinking about that. There?s this song, I forget all the words, but this dude buys a set of wings...]

Hallie B. Pritts: Blue-Eyed Story [Upon entering the bar you wouldn't notice him right away. You'd be adjusting to the change of light?it was always dim.]

Jerry Dismukes: Aphrodisiac [Walking into the bar, she loomed a massive sack of woman, more amorphous than me.]

Zac Rodgers: Wine Stain on White Blouse [?Some kind of warp bubbles up in the mirror,? she continued. ?And then my face gets distorted...]

Skeeze Whitlow: Estrella [Nearing the edge of this wild throng, a gaping hole in the night revealed convex arches of glistening teeth.]

Sarah Sage: Voices [We?re your only friends, Kit. Just think, without us you would have to hear all of the things that people say about you.]

Blipmore Radar: Franklin and the Mice [Franklin sees her inside, behind sight he sees her, within, where light is imagined he sees her, and remembers her looks and her words, the feel of her moving with him...]

Ashley E. Underell: Star-Tipped Cowgirls [We laughed so loud and hard that one of us got sent to the bathtub to sleep for the night...]

B. C. Hughes: We Were Bad for Each Other From the Start [It was like being enamored with some new drug that you know is going to ruin you but you can?t stop doing it until you?ve squeezed it of every last drop of pleasure and hit rock bottom...]

Egan Sterling: His Days Were Like This: [Each performance was timed and immediately afterwards checked for accuracy. Mistakes were pointed out to him and he pretended to be penitent and sincerely interested in improving.]

Zac Rodgers: Catnip [ We've all done it at one time or another. Some dumb kid comes up, makes you for some kind of... connection. You sell him a bag of catnip. Hardy har har.]

Zac Rodgers: Red Scarf Girl [Nathan saw her on the train on the way home from work two days in a row. On the second day he followed her.]

Sasha: Kapu Nightmare [The transcript of a dream. A conflict between the traditions of our ancestors, personal mysticism, and the taboos of foreign culutres.]

Sasha: Elextrassy [It was Jimmy first brought the shit around. Now we'd been runnin dope for a while by then. Into the oddballs, ya know, none of that Joe Green shit. I mean yah we smoked and all, but there ain't ever no profit in that. We were upwardly mobile...]

Eric Neyer: Indian Wars [Mount Rushmore was the beginning of the end for them. Or maybe it was Crazy Horse...]

Sasha: Zero [Those moments which penetrate the acceptance with which we approach the absurd, the distressing. These occurances give purpose to their own meaninglesness.]