April 22, 2019
"17th Anniversary Issue"

Short

Pete Armetta is a writer of Flash Fiction, Poetry, Short Stories and Essays. With a style that's been called accessible and broad, unpredictable and matter-of-fact, Pete is a genuine, self-taught outsider. His stories and poetry fend off conventionality and he's never easy to pigeonhole.

He doesn't wanna be.

Even though you know it's coming, nothing can prepare you for that sudden great loss ...

No matter how many hours you've spent chatting, emailing, posting ... there is one point that looms terrifyingly in the future ...

There is a life, and a way of life, that few understand -- but for those few, the horizon is endless, and the present full of riches ...

Yes, that is.

Living can be hard work even at the best of times, but a time comes when the effort of staying alive makes one long for retirement ...

The best flavors are the ones you can taste from your heart out...

To savor each day, to soak in all the beauty that surrounds us, from the minute to the mountainous...is there any higher calling?

Our lives flow along like the waters of a river, and where we find ourselves is at least partly due to how we use the current...

Nothing like a high school class reunion to find out how different you've become...

He always knew where to find her...

When the economy tanked, peoples' lives were infected as with disease; careers died, lifestyles perished -- even relationships sickened. For some, the only remnant of hope left was to cut away the infection and get beyond the reach of the contagion...

A second chance would be the perfect gift to share...

Sometimes a man has to take a stand, even when it's a seat.

Time passes, and well-wishers always try to tell you it's good to move on. But what if you don't know how to move on? What if you're not sure you want to?

"I'll think of you, imagining you everywhere..."

There they are, the most hopeless words ever to be heard from your physician. What will this mean for the rest of your life? Who could love, who could stand someone so afflicted?

When does art turn into just another damn job?

You met this guy at the bus stop, didn't you? I think I met him, too...

And sometimes what it's all about isn't what it's all about.

15%? 20%? You know what you need to pull out of that wallet...

What if there really is nothing to it?

Well, yes, but did you really have to say it?

Light a candle for remembrance, let it burn...for the passion once felt...

A long way, and the roads were fast and dry with a mirage at the end of them all...