Crow & Cross Keys || SUBS OPEN

An excerpt from short story, Blood Like Honey by Madison Ahn-Lee published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a tangle of thread on a dark background. The excerpt reads: She pulled, guiding, what was that? A string? A red string unraveled out of her mouth, its frayed end clutched between two fingernails. She pulled, looping the slimy line between her two fingers. The string’s body slithered up her throat, a long tongue pouring out of her open mouth.

What was that? A link? Yes. Click it.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/02/07/b...

A muted greyscale banner for short story, Blood Like Honey by Madison Ahn-Lee published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a tangle of thread on a dark background.

There are strings criss-crossed about the tower. If you follow one, it might lead to good fortune, or to certain death. There's no way of knowing until you try. To be safe, we're reading a story instead. This story:

"Blood Like Honey" by Madison Ahn-Lee

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/02/07/b...

An excerpt from reprinted flash fiction, Tightrope to the Moon by Carella Keil published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a feminine face with layers of flowers overlaid. The excerpt reads: My first life I was a mountain. I thought I would never die. I stared down at the clouds and up at the sky. One day a hiker tossed a rock off the edge, and I fell with it.

One day, you clicked the link. We click it with you.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/02/04/t...

A muted greyscale banner for reprinted flash fiction, Tightrope to the Moon by Carella Keil published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a feminine face with layers of flowers overlaid.

We have lived many lives, but we're not counting. Instead, we're assigning each life a colour. This one is mauve. On the subject of past lives, today's reprint...

"Tightrope to the Moon" by Carella Keil

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/02/04/t...

We will be reopening for submissions on 5th February. We look forward to seeing your work!

An excerpt from poem, Cassandra by R S Kendle published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a close up of a woman's eye with a white iris and no pupil. The excerpt reads: carve out these eyes. orbs of milk quartz clouded from peering through veiled apertures.

click this link.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/31/c...

A muted greyscale banner for poem, Cassandra by R S Kendle published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a close up of a woman's eye with a white iris and no pupil.

We've seen the future, but we won't tell you what happens. You wouldn't believe us if we did. Instead, we offer this poem...

"Cassandra" by R S Kendle

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/31/c...

An excerpt from short story, Crickets by E.B. Sommer published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a cricket sitting on a rock in shallow depth of field. The excerpt reads: She tends to her little cricket farm daily, making sure the shallow tin of water is filled and that they get their morning and evening meals of whatever is left over from her scraps. A processing plant a few blocks away grinds them every few weeks for her. She drops off her insects, and a few days later she picks up the bags of processed flour. She makes pancakes and sourdough bread, though the maple trees died out a decade ago and there are no cows for butter anymore.

We tend to the link. You click it.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/28/c...

A muted greyscale banner for short story, Crickets by E.B. Sommer published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a cricket sitting on a rock in shallow depth of field.

The trees around the tower contain elixirs instead of sap. We're not sure what happens if you drink them, though. We don't risk it, but we are Concerned™. For more relatable environmental concerns, today's short story...

"Crickets" by @ebsommer.bsky.social

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/28/c...

An excerpt from flash fiction, Still Life in Blue by Erin Pringle published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a toad in shallow depth of field. The excerpt reads: Toads from a far off place now making their way through the flowers, emerging one by one into the dirt where there’s never shade. They hop. They wait. They hop.

You click. We wait.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/24/s...

A muted greyscale banner for flash fiction, Still Life in Blue by Erin Pringle published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a toad in shallow depth of field.

Our heart is shaped like a beehive. Each bee that floats in and out is a story, or a poem, or piece of flash fiction. The latest to emerge is today's flash...

"Still Life in Blue" by Erin Pringle

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/24/s...

Thrilled to have another piece in @crowkeys.bsky.social!!

An excerpt from prose poem, The Baker by Elena Zhang published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a ball of dough on a dark, floury background. The excerpt reads: The girl falls asleep and dreams of her grandmother, wrinkled hand kneading pillow dough. The grandmother falls asleep and dreams of her husband, clutching a mushroom bouquet in the dirt.

You fall asleep, but not before clicking the link.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/21/t...

A muted greyscale banner for prose poem, The Baker by Elena Zhang published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a ball of dough on a dark, floury background.

We've got some words in the oven in the tower. We didn't follow a recipe, so we're not sure how they'll turn out. For a poem that has been baked to perfection, however...

"The Baker" by Elena Zhang

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/21/t...

An excerpt from short story, Housewives by Eilish Alexander published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a pile of forks haphazardly placed. The excerpt reads: Baby steps over to the cutlery drawer. She’s wearing a lemon-yellow skirt she borrowed from me. It looks better on her. She drops the forks, all in a naked, unprotected pile, into their place. I wait. Baby returns to her seat. She notices my look, at last.

You click the link. We wait.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/17/h...

A muted greyscale banner for short story, Housewives by Eilish Alexander published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a pile of forks haphazardly placed.

The tower has a husband somewhere. It doesn't mention them often, but we believe they are a mountain or at least, they used to be. We do, however, celebrate the towerwife's anniversary. For other types of wives...

"Housewives" by Eilish Alexander

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/17/h...

An excerpt from short story, Birch by E. F. Vollmer published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring pale silver birch trees with knots that look like eyes. The excerpt reads: What approached through the trees was a spindly thing, nearer a birch sapling come to life than anything remotely human. Delicate vines and greenery loosed themselves from its limbs as it proceeded forward—a quiet, ponderous walk, gently focused on Eli. Different serfdoms called the things different names. Ghosts. Reapers. Chillbones. All cold, quiet, dead, unrelenting.

What approached on your feed was the link. Click it.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/14/b...

A muted greyscale banner for short story, Birch by E. F. Vollmer published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring pale silver birch trees with knots that look like eyes.

Trees cannot be trusted. We will not be elaborating on this statement. Instead, we invite you to read today's short story...

"Birch" by E. F. Vollmer

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/14/b...

An excerpt from poem, lucky in the sky by Miranda Michalowski published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring pressed flowers on an open book. The excerpt reads: your love pressed into me like a flower pressed in a book is a memory like my belly on your belly is a fantasy like our knees are four things running.

you click the link; it's not a memory, it's happening right now.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/10/l...

A muted greyscale banner for poem, lucky in the sky by Miranda Michalowski published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring pressed flowers on an open book.

We're surrounded by mirrors, but we're reflected differently in each one. We don't remember what we look like anymore. Instead of fretting about our faces, we're reading excellent poetry.

"lucky in the sky" by Miranda Michalowski

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/10/l...

An excerpt from short story, Hands and Feet by EC Dorgan published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a deck of playing cards on a dark background. The excerpt reads: One thing she hasn’t forgotten. The habit that’s paying for her degree. Her roommates wait tables and sell gadgets in flower shops. She puts on a top hat and plays cards. They play on a hill. Or in a hill. When she was a child, she read a book about changelings. How they were born in the hollows of hills. She has a feeling she belongs to a whole different folk tradition. Or no folk tradition. Does she belong anywhere?

One thing you mustn't forget: to click the link.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/07/h...

A muted greyscale banner for short story, Hands and Feet by EC Dorgan published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a deck of playing cards on a dark background.

The tower remembers when it was just a small rock. It remembers growing stone by stone. It tries to forget that awkward adolescent stage when it was little more than a hovel by reading stories, just like this one...

"Hands and Feet" by EC Dorgan

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/07/h...

An excerpt from flash fiction, The Psychopomps are Dead by Jenna Grieve published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring overlaid images of lined paper, peaches and hibiscus. The excerpt reads: The psychopomps are dead, or they are hidden and watching, or they never existed at all. We crave: hibiscus, lined paper, tea leaves, paint, caramel, socks, peaches. We forget to crave larger concepts: sunlight, water, a place to sleep. We are lost in time.

The link exists. Click it.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/03/t...

A muted greyscale banner for flash fiction, The Psychopomps are Dead by Jenna Grieve published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring overlaid images of lined paper, peaches and hibiscus.

It is a new year and we are alive. We're not 100% certain what manner of 'alive' we are yet, but we'll work it out eventually. For now, we're enjoying our first flash fiction of 2026.

"The Psychopomps are Dead" by Jenna Grieve

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/01/03/t...

Our Mother, the Dark Damp Earth—Laila Amado On the first day of the sowing, Nena wakes up before dawn, tense with the half-remembered uneasiness of her dream. In the weak light, her husband’s face is a cragged outline with deep grooves, like…

Some stories take longer to find a home. "Our Mother, the Dark Damp Earth" was like that, but it was all worth it in the end because it was picked up by the best possible magazine, @crowkeys.bsky.social 🙏

Here it is: crowcrosskeys.com/2025/11/16/o...

An excerpt from poem, A Life That Might Be Yours / Flashes Before Someone's Eyes" by Stephanie Jones published on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring an abstract image with light trails. The excerpt reads: From the lines in a sudden palm a slope of unbundling years slips curves heavenward before a grasping sends everything off the icy cliff.

Send 2025 off the icy cliff. Click the link.

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/12/31/a...

A muted greyscale banner for poem, A Life That Might Be Yours / Flashes Before Someone's Eyes" by Stephanie Jones published on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring an abstract image with light trails.

And just like that, we've reached our last post of 2025. It's a beauty, folks. Join us as we in the tower bid goodbye to 2025 with one final poem.

"A Life That Might Be Yours / Flashes Before Someone's Eyes" by Stephanie Jones

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/12/31/a...

Little 2025 publication thread, with thanks to @crowkeys.bsky.social and @templeinacity.bsky.social and @bendinggenres.bsky.social: (And send me your lists!)

An excerpt from short story, The Ever After by Laura Mullen reprinted on crowcrosskeys.com, presented on a muted greyscale banner featuring a long-exposure photo reminiscent of a woman's soul leaving her body. The excerpt reads: By the time the ghost arrives, Lucy is asleep, her body warm. The ghost surveys the couple for a moment before approaching Lucy. She’s the believer of the pair. She’s who wanted to get married in this haunted mansion—who hoped the rumors were true. The ghost knows Lucy hopes for a haunting; hopes to exorcize any shadows lurking in the corners of her and Noel’s past. She wants to wake in the morning as Noel’s wife, their future clean and bright. The ghost doesn’t laugh—laughing is uncomfortable—but he is amused by her vision. So sweet. So simple.

By the time you click the link, the story is ready.

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/12/27/t...

A muted greyscale banner for short story, The Ever After by Laura Mullen reprinted on crowcrosskeys.com, featuring a long-exposure photo reminiscent of a woman's soul leaving her body.

It's the perfect night for a haunting here at the tower. Dark and cold and windy. Be careful where you sit. You never know what might end up sitting there with you to enjoy today's short story...

"The Ever After" by Laura Mullen

crowcrosskeys.com/2025/12/27/t...