Empty Silos is also a paperback. Pick up the paperback from Prolific Press; the stories and poems published online are free to read here.
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My Homestead, For Better or Worse by Ray Spitzenberger
for better or worse I love my homestead rows of burnt-gold milo maize the grain sorghum grown for feed hot sand between long rows reflects the fierce sun above and…
Empty Silos
Penny by Linda Sacco
He liked that I was a free spirit, so he could bottle me up and sell me to the highest bidder. It is such a long spiral down, waiting for…
Empty Silos
Reality by johnmac the bard
Reading Billy Collins or Bukowski or Sharon Olds Is like watching Ted Williams hit or Steve Jobs sell a concept or Larry Bird see the court or Steven Hawking think.…
Empty Silos
Death and Life by Jesse Thompson
Franklin claimed that it would come To us as surely as taxes. And yes, it can be quite taxing, But death is the continuum of life– An embrace between two…
Empty Silos
A Case of Induced Prophecy by Maria DePaul
On a moonlit night, As the Milky Way Shimmered like a band Reflected in a lake Just outside of The town of Inwood Indiana, A woman foresaw An emerging civilization.…
Empty Silos
Mother Sat Me by Marc Meierkort
Mother sits me down in front of The Partridge Family & says “do your homework.” I had already done my homework, see, but she doesn’t know that. Mother sits me…
Empty Silos
Legacy of Blue by Candice Louisa Daquin
She is a bright & mauve butterfly Singing to the moon for her supper Wishing against silence for support Sweet in words that are caught Against the silver spiders web…
Empty Silos
Macabre Morality under a Tent by Christopher Collingwood
An evil Ferris wheel disturbs the nightmares of the living Disfigured clowns giggle to demented souls A tattered tent limps awkwardly in the distance Its faded stripes run in the…
Empty Silos
Grazing by Joseph S. Pete
All scut and scurry and grinding incisors, the voracious rabbit lingered around the grassy fringes of the invasive, petroleum byproduct parking lot like a downy talisman. Famed for its irrepressible…
Empty Silos
Icicles by Elizabeth Shuler
Glassy and wet water in a white dress, thrashing the “I” with a thick Ick! Right in the middle. “C” curving around the “L” sharp as a sickle. Cracking with…
Empty Silos
Across a Frozen Pond by James B. Nicola
I skated myself across a pond In cursive abandon and back again And was happy with the impression I’d made And that others could see my giant scrawl All winter.…
Empty Silos
In Old Age, Remembering by Jonathan Bracker
1. Rethinking childhood he recalls a gruff Kind male teacher in shop class Instructing the boys how to make, Basically on one’s own, Simple book-ends which would be shellacked. Tools…
Empty Silos
Scraping By by Andrew Hubbard
These little cities Were tough and strong, Pious and independent. Mostly they made parts And sub-assemblies For the motor city, Hub of car manufacturing For the world. But everything changes…
Empty Silos
Shades of Endymion by Chani Zwibel
Mesmerize me with hypnotic eyes, and still I know your ten thousand lies. Lovely demon, hands of ice, your crooked smile with not suffice. All leonine, I loved you once,…
Empty Silos
Point of No Return by Robert B. Moreland
When the piercing pain inside overshadows the fear of death, it’s easier to step into the unthinkable. Depression’s dark tendrils blind reason, serotonin depleted, amygdale’s protective fear forgotten. Impulse removes…
Empty Silos
A Winter Form by Dean Baltesson
A shadow consults the night lonely image rising and falling in pools of cold street light moving figure clothed in silence measuring loneliness between the warmth of windows lit by…
Empty Silos
Taking Leave by Robin Reynolds
Inside of here, I hold on too tightly. Fists clenched and toes curled, I white-knuckle my way through this life. I cannot wear this skin well, I don’t know how…
Empty Silos
Finding You on the Harmony Road by Pat Anthony
I drive gravel roads to lift this darkness a clenched fist around the day, crowding heart, ribs, squeezing air from laboring lungs count Rose of Sharon beginning to bloom beside…
Empty Silos
Vinterfelt by Chris Wheeler
I went back to my childhood home and midst the rustle of the new year took a walk through back-acre trails. Stomping grounds of old have grown cold. I remember…
Empty Silos
There Are Railroad Tracks that Run Through this Town by Leah Angstman
that go somewhere, but I’ve never known where. Somewhere, on both sides, we’re connected to someone else’s town, but in between is here. And here smells of spiraea and lilacs,…
Empty Silos
Sweet Corn from a Roadside Stall by Leah Angstman
“Quarter a ear,” she says, “I’ll shuck it for a extra nickel.” She needs the nickel more than I— the accent hard and guttural, back of the throat—haven’t the heart…
Empty Silos
The Empire State by Peter Ivarson
I look up at the night In my rural hometown Where the only light source Is the moon and evening stars And no car to be seen for miles On…
Empty Silos
Returned by Deborah L. Davitt
They’d lain their grandparents to rest last week— none of the family had reckoned on seeing them again, except as pictures in dusty albums and words traced on tombstones.. But…
Empty Silos
Taxidermied Memories by Brent C. Green
They say you should behave like your childhood books taught, where you find yourself while in other lands. Because in your hometown you are a decaying Texas oak tree, toilet…
Empty Silos
Goodness Gracious by johnmac the bard
I saw him on television this wizened old man speaking softly of days of yore. And then the host Don Imus, said, somewhat cruelly, I thought, “Would you do a…
Empty Silos
The Old Rag Picker Man by Charles Mercer
Every place has one. Why should Inwood be any different? He is only spoken about in whispers. There, see, in the shadows of that darkened corner. Yes, that’s him. The…
Empty Silos
The Kindness of Strangers by Sarah D’Stair
The incision had been hurting all day. She imagined the bloody slice to the top of her foot, the scalpel precise, the foot orange for some reason she knows is…
Empty Silos
The Big Bang Theory by Bill DeArmond
It was quite by accident that I discovered what might be the harbinger of the end of time. As yet I haven’t been able to do anything about it other…
Empty Silos
Slow Country by Che Pieper
You are in Slow Country now. Agonizingly, frustratingly, overbearingly Slow Country. Country so slow it buzzes, like bees on a summer day so hot there might not be any bees,…
Empty Silos
The Mask Maker by Stephen P. Jackson
Ambrosia Woolf was a gifted maker of masks. She picked up the skill when she was eighteen while working on an ocean liner called the Namaste . A puppeteer by…
Empty Silos
Tunnels by K.B. Woods
“Can’t swim.” Mark breaks another glow stick and puts it into his backpack. “Seriously?” Kara crosses her arms and leans against the side of the ditch, starring in shock at…
Empty Silos
The Consultant by A. Poythress
May looks up from the pale-yellow flyer in her hand to the non-descript building in front of her. There’s no sign hanging anywhere saying what’s inside. It’s just a tidy,…
Empty Silos
The Dare by Suzanne Cottrell
The cemetery caper began as a dare. Upper-class students dared freshmen to pick up a souvenir rock and take a selfie in front of a tombstone as a rite of…
Empty Silos
An Inwood Horror by Alan Meyrowitz
Through his bedroom window, Hank had been watching the UFO for about twenty minutes as it moved in what seemed a random path across the night sky. It was a…
Empty Silos
The Question by Bruce Levine
Margo couldn’t help wondering why one of her favorite television channels had suddenly begun a countdown to Christmas. She loved Christmas as much as anyone, but it was April sixth,…
Empty Silos
Be Kind, Rewrap by David Starnes
The ghosts in this town aren’t much for conversation. If they stop, it’s not for long, not long enough to tell me if they’ve seen Momma. The need to find…
Empty Silos
Cornfield by Veronica McDonald
“Well, there was that one time, of course,” Fran Lewis lowered her voice, but her eyes sparkled as the memory floated to the surface, bubbling like the champagne clasped in…
Empty Silos
The Kid and the Poet by Greg Stidham
I The wooden leg of the straight-backed chair groaned as the boy scooted it over the hardwood floor, a few inches closer to the bed. The room was dim, with…
Empty Silos
Midnight Dogs by Chip Jett
The little Yorkie dog wandered onto Andy Rice’s property on the last day of post planning. Andy had arrived home, alone, fixed himself a bite to eat, then settled into…
Empty Silos
The Face in the Portrait by Clark Zlotchew
The pit bull’s bark sounded as though it blasted its way out of a bull horn, each bark making the postman flinch. In between barks it lunged at the postman,…
Empty Silos
Sunfish by Jeffrey Penn May
“When you were a tadpole, and I was a fish, In the Paleozoic time, And side by side in the ebbing tide We sprawled through the ooze and slime.” ~…