Bully May 2025
Baby by Marjorie Tesser
Babyby Marjorie TesserOn the bus trip to the store, my stomach growled. They didn’t hear, the other campers up front in happy pairs. That morning my bunk mates had been playing keep-away with my sneaker. I’d given up, gone to the nurse for solace and missed breakfast....
Bully by Dawn Tasaka Steffler
Bullyby Dawn Tasaka StefflerAngela notices the for sale sign the Monday it goes up. When she walks the dog the following Saturday, pop-up realtor signs dot the intersections: Open House Today 12-5. In the living room, her husband, Pete, is hunched forward, elbows on...
Camo by Ivars Balkits
Camoby Ivars BalkitsFlecked with the images that surround it: post-autumn brown, leaf cling, pale stemmed, blown-out seed fluff. Is someone there? It is like the famous scientific cat. Philosophical cat. Such a fine round tent and meant not to be there. I find it...
Cowbirds by Alice Kinerk
Cowbirdsby Alice KinerkCowbirds are the assholes of the feathered world. They lay their eggs in the nests of others and fly away to leave the hard work to someone else. If by chance the alien egg is found and pushed out, the cowbird mommy returns to destroy all other...
Earthbound Bodies by Mea Andrews
Earthbound Bodiesby Mea AndrewsWe would have separated on our own, but you came with a van that could only be started after forcing my twelve-year-old mouth to wrap around a black tube of plastic and blow, one long beep and you're in. Mother could never do it, It’s...
Feeding Time by Ali Mckenzie-Murdoch
Feeding Timeby Ali Mckenzie-MurdochTonight is fish and chips on the beach, serenaded by the whizz-bang ka-ching from the amusement arcade. Dad hands me a tenner, and I dodge across the road to the Stag Inn – they’ll serve you even if you’re only twelve. Inside there’s...
Five Fingers and a Stupid Red Cap by Fendy Satria Tulodo
Five Fingers and a Stupid Red Capby Fendy Satria TulodoAt first, I didn’t see anything. Just the orange dust looping behind the truck and a blur that might’ve been a goat or a trick of the heat. But if you squint long enough into that kind of light – too bright, too...
GIRL THUG. by Amy Anam Cara
GIRL THUG.by Amy Anam CaraAll the boys are scared of her. She breaks into their lockers. Steals all the porn. Replaces it with pleas from trafficked girls who just want to go home. She spits slimy fingers down their backs in the lunch queue. Just so they know how it...
Instead of Friendship by Chris Clemens
Instead of Friendshipby Chris ClemensHarjit slips out after midnight, down to Waterloo Park to ask difficult questions of the zoo llamas, their eyes shining like golden coins. How do I find a world where the edges are softer? Where do waterfalls of adoration spill...
Mummy Bunny by Ramesh Gupta
Mummy Bunnyby Ramesh GuptaWhen I was taken into care by Social Services, I considered it a betrayal of the most sacred trust. As far as I was concerned, my mother should have fought to keep me. But she didn’t and so I had none. * I was brought up in the Gorbals area...
Other Moms… by T.L. Tomljanovic
Other Moms Stand in an Impenetrable Circle of Backsby T.L. TomljanovicThey don’t make eye contact during school pick-up. Mrs. Toffitt calls again about the chair throwing. “We want Lennon here, but—” The words safe spaces and inclusivity buzz like bees into ear wax,...
Squashed by Tracy Hope
Squashedby Tracy HopeThe face cream, cold at first, warms under her fingertips as she soothes circles into her cheeks. Her skin smooth and soft, even at eighty, even when there's no one to touch her face but her. She never steps outside without putting on her face....
The Low Fence by Jeffery Allen Tobin
The Low Fenceby Jeffery Allen TobinIn the far field, a red calf nudged the smaller one away from the salt lick. No great violence, just a sharpness in the body, a muscle speaking louder than the rest. The smaller calf waited, tail twitching, hooves shifting, then...
Where Prospect Met Crescent by George Yatchisin
Where Prospect Met Crescentby George YatchisinIf my parents were in love it was because the country let them be, asking for families to mushroom suburbia all over the northeast. The busy post-war manufacture of weapons systems bloomed the likes of Curtiss-Wright,...
