Kyle Hemmings

Hour By Hour
by Lindsey Duncan

Weepers And Ragers
by Aliette de Bodard

Diminished Capacity
by Andrew Zimmerman Jones

And Saturn Below
by Wade Ogletree

Flash

The Road To Heather Cove
By Richard A. Lovett

The Devil You Know
By Heidi Wessman Kneale

Dreams of Sinaloa
by Alveraz Ricardez

The Japanese Businessman
by Kyle Hemmings

An Alien Ate My SF Poem
by Elizabeth Barrette

Partial–birth Revolution
by Kaori Praschak

Vault
by John Fyffe

Pancho' s Email
by Marie Vibbert

Twelve Dancing Daughters
by Pam McNew

Alone No More
by William Trowbridge

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The Japanese businessman saw his wife
as a neat collection of her favorite clothes
spread across the bed: the sequined gowns,

the two–piece jacket & skirts,
the starched turtlenecks that could almost
stand up on their own,
the white & pink brassieres
that covered the hard lumps of cancer,

he felt her absence like a magnet,

A black hole of memory,
for days he walked the streets,
stared into the same dress shops she loved;
he passed through crowds talking to the air,
the faces, as if one presence,
he gave up reading magazines, watching CNN,
tracking the Tokyo Exchange
He came home one night, climbed into bed
a shadow on the wall,
bending, writhing, slinking, rising
opening its arms for him
it spoke: don't let me catch you
with another woman
This shadow with his wife's voice

Crouched low, stayed silent,
as he lifted his frame from the bed;
now, he thought, his arms groping,
if he could only get her back to bed
snuggle up to her, hide her under the sheet,
the energy it would take
to trap a shadow.

Kyle Hemmings works in health care and has recently completed his MFA degree from National University, CA. His passions include cooking, baking, cartoon art, and listening to old Beach Boys' records. And sleeping late on Saturday mornings.