Tag: Short story

A soft-focus close-up peers down into a pale green drink containing mint and a curl of sliced cucumber. The ingredients dissolve into luminous shapes, their boundaries blurred by glass and liquid. Shades of mint, lime, and yellow-green fill the frame, giving the image a cool, muddled, almost abstract quality. Freshness and sharpness mingle in this hazy study of sweet and sour. Photo by the author.

“Sweet and Sour” * Fiction * Karin Doucette

aromatica poetica August 26, 2026

Like many young-marrieds in the 1970s, Bob and Jill devoured Siddhartha and Vonnegut, appreciated Hendrix, and filled their bodies with revolutionary meals from the spiralbound pages of Moosewood Cookbook and the Diet for a Small Planet. They bought a small, shingled house, set back from the Seattle street, which they papered, painted, and flower-potted with vigor. Both got good jobs and then had a healthy, happy son. On TV, Julia Child stirred an enticing pot of life’s possibilities which captured …

Centered within a wide white border is a black-and-white photograph of a devastated urban street framed tightly around an elderly man sitting on a wooden bench. He is bald and dressed in a dark suit, white shirt, and tie. His posture is slightly forward, with one hand resting on the bench and the other near the handle of a long cane that extends diagonally. Facing the camera, his expression is solemn and composed rather than overtly emotional. Immediately behind him stands a tracked construction vehicle, its heavy metal body filling much of the middle ground. The background consists of a ruined city street lined with bomb-damaged buildings. Rubble spills across sidewalks and into the roadway. On the right, the shell of a commercial building survives, the letters of its faded sign are difficult to decipher. Farther back, fragments of taller buildings and decorative towers punctuate the skyline, hinting at the neighborhood's former architectural richness. The overall effect is one of profound stillness: a solitary man quietly inhabiting a landscape of last days. (Public domain, from the author.)

“Last Days of Ambrogino” * Fiction * Peter J. Dellolio

aromatica poetica August 7, 2026

I was told that after the war a patrol of soldiers found me lying unconscious in an abandoned building in a town I could not remember. The soldiers brought me to a hospital where I was gradually revived and given medication for some wounds I had received. These were not gunshot wounds. When I awoke, I could not recall who I was or where I had come from. That is, I did not know if I belonged to this town, …

A group of people sitting together on a hay-covered wagon pulled by a horse on a Halloween night. The atmosphere is joyful and celebratory, with one person holding a large, brightly colored rainbow pride flag up high. The people on the hayride are waving and smiling, dressed in various colorful clothes. Warm, glowing autumn trees surround the path, and the dark sky is dotted with a few stars. The whole scene is painted with a soft, dreamy quality, giving it a festive and inclusive feeling. By ChatGPT – inspired by “Hard to Get” by Mike Lewis-Beck.

“Hard to Get” * A Short Story * Mike Lewis Beck

aromatica poetica October 13, 2025

Hilda believed she couldn’t marry Rick, even though she loved him. She believed this because she stood married to Herbert, her first love. Her mother, Audrey Ann, told her, the morning of the twenty-pew church wedding at Lovely Lane Methodist. “Hildie, marriage makes us whole, in the eyes of our Lord, in the eyes of friends and family—love, honor, and obey. Herbert has moved up to second teller at the bank. He’s clean cut and never drinks on Sundays. When …

The image is curtesy the Bing image generator with the following prompt: Paint a portrait of a forceful and formidable female figure with platinum blonde hair, exaggerated features, including large red lips. She is dressed in 1950’s glamorous fashion. The painting should have bold and expressive brushstrokes, fragmented and distorted features, and a vibrant color palette.

“Blonde Noir” * Short Story * DC Diamondopolous

aromatica poetica December 27, 2023

Kit Covington sat on the sofa in her Pacific Palisades mansion with a cigarette lodged in the side of her mouth. A cloud of smoke floated around her head. She adjusted the oxygen tube in her nose, then brushed ash from her dog Muffin’s champagne-colored curls. The miniature poodle dozing in Kit’s lap startled when the camera crew from The Great Morning Talk Show banged equipment into Kit’s antique furniture. “Watch it! You scratch anything, you’ll pay for the restoration.” …

A man and a woman sit at a kitchen table that’s draped romantically with a white tablecloth and a rose at its center. The woman in a pretty frilly collared dress looks judgingly at the man who is about to dig into his plate of meat, potatoes and greens with gusto. The fridge with magnets, a stove with simmering pot, and wood floors leading to another door are in the background. Scent tentacles reach out of the objects in their respective colors: purple for the wine, red for the rose, brown for the meat, etc. Illustration by Alabaster Rhumb.

“Anosmia” * Fiction * Tara Ison

aromatica poetica October 26, 2023

It’s early days yet (a casual omelet bar meet-up, then a nice though not too-pricey bistro dinner), but she thinks it’s going well, so far. Her friend Jean thought they’d hit it off, that Rose would like this public defender guy Jean met at some wedding and interrogated over the tarragon chicken, on Rose’s behalf, about his relationship status; Jean said he checked all the boxes Rose thinks are important, and so felt fine passing along her number. She and …

This creative and whimsical image features a large, brown dog's head and nose in space, hovering above a small Earth. The dog (probably a Basset Hound) has droopy ears and a calm expression. The Earth is depicted with blue oceans and green and brown land masses—you can make out the general shapes of continents such as North and South America, Africa, and parts of Europe and Asia. The background is a starry night sky with various galaxies and stars. The starry background appears to be a photograph, while the dog and the Earth seem to be drawn or digitally created, giving the image a mix of realism and illustration. Illustration by Alabaster Rhumb, description by Be My AI, lightly edited.

“The Nose of the World” * Fiction * Amber Burke

aromatica poetica September 20, 2023

Because you are good to me, and because I pity you for all the things you do not know, and because I want you to understand me, I will tell you how the world smells. If you could know the truth of it, you would wake up the way I wake up, besieged, inveigled, incredulous, impatient, the iridescent scent of hummingbirds already burning my nostrils: the smells, the smells! I need you to open the door so I can throw …

Pop art image of an ice cream birthday cake melting on a red leather car seat. DALL E plus a little Alabaster magic.

“Car With Cake” * Fiction * Mike Lewis-Beck

aromatica poetica June 1, 2023

Look, said Dick. See the red car. Jane said, Oh, look! It goes fast. A flashback to gramps reading Dick and Jane, about a little toy car—so unlike the real red car I’ve been working on. A beauty, I think, as I park it on a red-brick street, down from Carmine’s red-brick cottage. It’s autumn and the street’s lined with maples and their colorful leaves—canary, caramel, crimson. A group of kids with marshmallows-on-a-stick are huddled around a small bonfire …

Sitting on a wood Victorian table in the foreground are a Greenish gritty pumice soap bar soaping up with suds, and a cheeseburger also engulfed by suds. In the background, a black and white photograph of four Victorian lady tennis players in white dresses and hats with black ties and holding tennis rackets in different positions.

“Soaping Up” * Fiction * Mike Lewis-Beck

aromatica poetica October 12, 2022

“Why aren’t you in class or on the courts?” asked a guest, rustling the calm of the sun-soaked corridor of Total Tennis (TT), a summer camp for teen women. “The campanile bell rang at 6:00 a.m.” “Yes, ma’am,” replied Marina, a 19-year-old counselor-in-training. “Monday through Saturday, before breakfast, we’re all supposed to take a workshop. Yesterday mine was Better Backhand. Today it’s Kinesiology.” The student could explain Kinesiology to this new lady but decided not to since she had a …

An illustration of a bright and colorful flower shop with various potted plants and all kinds of flowers out front under the bluish green awning. Through the open door you can see a sink and more pots and vases. To the left and right a grey fence with toxic barrels on one side and a beat up garbage can on the other. The sky is also grey and a black factory spewing smoke stands ominously in the distance. By Alabaster Rhumb for “The Master of Scents.”

“The Master of Scents” * Fiction * By Vincent Ravalec * Translated by Wendeline A. Hardenberg

aromatica poetica January 27, 2022

He liked to think that wherever he happened to go, he got into people’s heads. He wormed his way inside them, influenced them, guided the moments he joined—that’s how he understood his purpose, his role here and there: as a joint venture—as surely as a ray of sunlight illuminates a day or the rain dampens your hair. Few knew him directly or had access to him, and yet many had encountered him. He was the Master of Scents. He ruled …

An interior photograph of Café Metafoor with signs for beers in French and English and Dutch and lots and lots of taps.

“Café Metafoor” * Fiction * Mike Lewis-Beck

aromatica poetica May 13, 2021

I sat on a bar stool at the best beer pub in Leuven, not to say the best in all of Flanders, which means the best in Belgium, maybe the world. Of all the brews on offer at Café Metafoor, I chose the Affligem Dubbel, a dark malty ale, just sweet enough and strong enough, but not too strong. Like all true Belgian alehouses, no food was served, except for peanuts or chips, for the salt. I went for the …