creative
Sirens
The rocking chair swayed back and forth like water against the hull of a ship. Through the window, she could see that the night was still. In the valley below, the soft glow of the town stretched all the way to the shore.
8 June 2018
Night of the Beast
Have you heard about the Night of the Beast? It’s the day those creatures we cared for, creatures we treasure, and the creatures we hunted come back to our world. Clothed in the skin of the underworld, fit for a hot summer evening, they march down the streets, their legs returning them to homes where the memories of them subsist.
21 May 2018
Flash Fiction Four: Fantasy and Fables
Long ago, Snow White’s ancestors invaded a beautiful, sunny land. There she lived in the Queen’s care. The Queen asked her magic mirror, “Who is the fairest in the land?”
It replied, “If you mean fair as in pale, it’s Snow White. But don’t hold yourself to the beauty standards of your oppressors. Love yourself.”
21 May 2018
Judge’s 7+7
strange land where meat regrets the eater &
it’s a rare strength indeed
ain’t sweetened by a drop of honey
Changeling
He was wearing a coat of leaves, the body and genitals covered in poultice. I’ve always known when mirrors lie. His face, though, was my dad’s fly lure, tremoring over a lake body, my gums reddening when I brushed too deliberately, the desire to chew with my mouth open, the wasps I’d seen fumigated by mum in our roof, their nest like a football. I gazed hungrily as he pointed to a mound of earth on my left—his right—nails bark-splintered.
21 May 2018
Bruise
The first time I came out of myself it was not how they had described.
A hum under the surface, weighted and distant.
Bananas
The living room looked out over Elgin Street. Her flat was flanked by an Indian restaurant and a car park. The boobs the chalk were referencing could only be hers. She flung open the window and leant out, as if the scent of the chalk writer still hung on the air and she could sniff them out.
21 May 2018
Mengambil Semula
Di manakah anda semua menyembunyi? Di tepi sudut dewan kuliah atau di belakang kelas? Sebagai seorang yang sentiasa senyap, anda tidak bergerak dan dengan sentiasa pandangan mereka berpaling kepadamu.
21 May 2018
Down at Eagle Creek
And as he hammered his father’s father’s words into the ground,
time seemed to slip into the distant horizon
and the ute, crushed in half, sank deeper into Eagle Creek.