Frank Baird Hughes

"The Oneiromantic Sheep"
Radon Journal
June 2025

"Sheep." Nicolaes Pietersz Berchem. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

The flock and their shepherds were halfway to the Christmas-feast when the coyotl trotted out of the late afternoon haze and onto the old motorway. Low and slinky, they fanned out around the lead rams and Samuel, who was standing point of balance to push the flock forward. He called back to warn Min, his apprentice and granddaughter.

"The Path to the Cornmill"
The Colored Lens
Spring 2025

Adlaid Dunlop was at chores when the soldiers came. That time of morning was the pigs, feeding them and cleaning the pens. With her arms and nose straining at a couple of overripe slop pails, she turned her head toward the road for a sniff of fresh air and espied the greycoats marching into her mountain village of Fifty Lashings, gunmetal swaying at their shoulders.

"The Library Across the Universe Who Loved a Man"
Manawaker Studio's Flash Fiction Podcast
November 2024

The Library, Sebastopol; Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

You created me. You selected the plot of land that would house my mind on undug, terraformed Shih Shen. You drew sketches of my citadel walls and of my halls. You handed these to teams of engineers, scientists, and architects, but you were my prime mover.