Tag: prose
-
Waiting to Bloom
By Crystal James As a prepubescent teen, I imagined blooming like a flower by eighteen. On that day, I’d be declared a woman, and I feel differently about my appearance. Whenever I felt down on myself, I imagined this version of myself in a coming-of-age tale. It was a full-blown fantasy starring a boy from…
-
Someone Else’s Turn
By Erica Lee Smith It’s not eavesdropping if other people’s words find their way to you when you’re just minding your own business. At least that’s what she tells herself, as she stands by the open window above the kitchen sink, inhaling the fragrance of day lilies that she had cut earlier that morning and…
-
To Love a Body
CW: Sexual situations, birth trauma, some discussion of disordered eating and diet By Julia Nusbaum Now In the half dark of my bedroom, I dig for the leggings and sweatshirt I discarded last night. This is my uniform now, leggings that haven’t been laundered in a week and a shirt with spills and stains I…
-
A Stroll Through the Fruit and Veg Section
By Carys Crossen The week the pregnancy test displayed two blue lines Elise’s baby was the size of a sesame seed. Two weeks later, it was the size of a blueberry, according to the pregnancy website she had started checking compulsively. Another fortnight later and it had the same dimensions as a grape. Elise wondered…
HLWW Featured Author
-
Snow Princess
By Tracey Chizoba Fletcher There was a minute of stunned silence. It was soon followed by the sounds of muffled cries as Mrs. Okoro cupped her hands over her mouth. All the hurts and frustrations she had borne for the past fifteen years of marriage, flowed freely like a faucet turned on. She hadn’t dared…
-
Abandoned
By A.P. Joye January 3rd, 2001 “Name?” The lady raised her eyebrows. “Lilith Jones.” “There you are.” She announced from behind her desk; the icons on the monitor reflected in her eyes. After signing Lilith in, the lady assured her that it’d only be a moment. Lilith nodded rather than to fill the quiet, sterile…
HLWW Featured Author
-
Take a Stand
By Kim Bundy Paul finished his ham biscuit and drained his Bloody Mary, even though he wasn’t much of a drinker. He was standing in Gloria’s dining room on the morning of her funeral, hoping the vodka might tame his nerves. He tried to ease out of the room past Jay, Gloria’s older son, who…
-
A Lilac Year
By Christie Cochrell It was a lilac year, their last year of high school, the year Rosa’s mother was dying. All that spring Franny felt lost, left out, unable to get close to Rosa, her oldest and dearest friend. Worse still, she felt resentful too, for all the losses of things slipping past while her…
HLWW Featured Author
-
Enough Already
By Rae Mosher CW: discontent with body Maya stood on the treadmill crying. She had been here for 10 minutes now. Not sobbing violent and ugly, not one tear rolling down her cheek like a falling petal, just crying. She hated running. She was pissed as hell that she had to do this. But she…
HLWW Featured Author
-
May Day
By Pat Morris CW: The following piece discusses the emotional abuse of a child. Maddie loved skunk cabbage. She loved its pretty purple flowers—long gone by this second week in May. She loved the way its big green leaves lined the little stream that tricked through “the gully” where she kept her hideout. She even…
Heartland Society of Women Writers 