FIBS WINNERS
Regrets
by Brit Mandelo
Pulse
Taste
Thunder
A copper
Penny bitterness
Lingers in my mouth, hot like blood.
Brit Mandelo is a student from Louisville, Kentucky. She has been published in several magazines, including Flash Me!, Bent, and HeavyGlow Flash.
to forget him
by Michaela A. Gabriel
just
play
your song
backwards. dance
counter-clockwise. smoke
the ash of his last cigarette.
Michaela A. Gabriel lives in Vienna, Austria, where she helps adults acquire computer and English skills, and gets together with the muse as often as possible. She has been published in English, German, Italian, and Polish, both online and in print. Her first chapbook, apples for adam, was published in January 2005, and she has another chapbook, the secret meanings of greek letters forthcoming in October 2007. When she is not writing, she is reading, listening to music, watching movies, blogging, communicating with friends, playing tennis or traveling — usually several of these at the same time.
by Felicity Bloomfield
Place
Me
Inside
A hollow
I will make it full.
My mind is full of dreams, and holes.
Fel
Writes
A lot.
She wins stuff
(Competitions rock)
And one day, you can read her books.
Never Came Back
by Lon Prater
Wait
Breathe
crickets
chirp of birds
This is not the way
morning swoops down on the hunter
Lon Prater is the lucky father of two great girls, a stunt kite flyer and a writer of odd little tales. Among other places, his work can be found in Writers of the Future XXI and the Stoker-winning anthology Borderlands 5. Find out more about his writing at www.LonPrater.com.
Coheelee Creek Road
by Lori Romero
red
car
raising
dancing dust
pirouetting up
collapsing breathless to the ground
Lori Romero is a published poet and fiction writer, and served as Artistic Director of Friends & Artists Theatre Ensemble in Los Angeles. She is co-founder of Cezanne's Carrot, a Santa Fe-based online literary journal (www.cezannescarrot.org). Ms. Romero's chapbook, Wall to Wall, was published by Finishing Line Press. Her short story, "Strange Saints," was a semifinalist in the Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award and her short screenplay won the Manhattan Short Film Festival's Screenplay Competition. Her poetry and fiction have been published in more than sixty journals and anthologies. She was just nominated for a second Pushcart Prize.
The Affair
by Metta Sama
My
ring
finger
gingerly
glides along a free
package of duck sauce. I hunger
Metta Sama is a poet living in New York. Upstate. Where the mountains are endless, and the fog is zoned for the twilight.
Teeth on Down
by Lori Romero
lies
thin
as ice
waning smile
of a Cheshire cat
never a grin without an act
Lori Romero is a published poet and fiction writer, and served as Artistic Director of Friends & Artists Theatre Ensemble in Los Angeles. She is co-founder of Cezanne's Carrot, a Santa Fe-based online literary journal (www.cezannescarrot.org). Ms. Romero's chapbook, Wall to Wall, was published by Finishing Line Press. Her short story, "Strange Saints," was a semifinalist in the Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award and her short screenplay won the Manhattan Short Film Festival's Screenplay Competition. Her poetry and fiction have been published in more than sixty journals and anthologies. She was just nominated for a second Pushcart Prize.
the blues
by M.A. Wantroba
the
breath
of a
pained soul made
beautiful as it's
filtered through a harmonica
M. A. Wantroba lives in the jungle of Los Angeles, has wasted a lot of time because he has spent a lot of time wasted, and he's disappointed with us all.
Laborious. This, Love
by Metta Sama
Of
you.
Of your
fingers. Of
mine dining. Lazy,
on your thigh. Famished. Ask me. Now.
Metta Sama is a poet living in New York. Upstate. Where the mountains are endless, and the fog is zoned for the twilight.
Falling
by Caroline M. Davies
One
split
second
of being
alive to your joy
is all it takes to disarm me.
Caroline Davies is Welsh although she lives in England. She writes poetry and short fiction and is a member of Alex Keegan's Bootcamp.