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DRUNK MONKEYS IS A Literary Magazine and Film Blog founded in 2011 featuring short stories, flash fiction, poetry, film articles, movie reviews, and more

Editor-in-chief KOLLEEN CARNEY-HOEPFNEr

managing editor

chris pruitt

founding editor matthew guerrero

Connecting Flight by Robin Small

Rows of blue flight numbers are aligned
with blue times, I bounce my eyes back
and forth between to make sure I’m seeing the right pairing.
I am on the opposite
side of this too-long airport: Gate A, and I have 25 minutes
to make it to gate F, for the connection.
The shuttle bus drives in winding circles in and out of baggage
carts.  I climb
the stairs to the tiny
tin can plane, rivets rattle
when the engine starts. My seat
is right next to the propeller, wobbling as it spins.
Emergency exit row, I can assist,
of course.
“You can’t nod,” the flight attendant says, “I have to hear you say ‘yes.’”
“Yes,” I say.
The wheels roll on runway pavement grooved for traction, so it’s a crunching speed
that propels me; leaning forward, pressed back,
until there’s a lift in my center straight through,
we’re up.
Not air travel,
but time travel; because in that second I’m back-
you know when-
that time you had a chance to look straight at me,
and I know this,
this is what we missed- the connecting flight.


Robin Small writes poetry, short and flash fiction, and is currently working on her second novel. She is a member of the Hyla Brook Poets, and the New Hampshire Writers Project. Robin is particularly fond of dead Russian novelists, biking, and coffee.

Houdini’s Excursion by Aaron Wiegert

Covenant by Catherine Simpson

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