I am picking soft tomatoes from the vine when I see the old woman for the first time. Our house squats stubbornly among cornfields that stretch far and flat to …
About Lin (Stuart Cooke)
Manila, 2011. It was early March, when all surfaces were coated in grimy sweat. I’d only been in town a few days but I’d met a girl. And not even …
Because Once More (Natasha Rai)
Edited by Michelle McLaren Driving to work this morning, I think about Ben. It’s been eight months since he vanished. The longest he’s ever been away. Can’t he bring himself …
Knives (Ben Walter)
(Edited by Laura McPhee-Browne) In our house right now the most popular show is the cooking one produced in jail. The inmates are not allowed knives which makes the whole …
My Ins and Outs with Closets (Patricia Dwyer)
Every spring I clean out my closet. I open the windows and enjoy a whiff of lilac, pack up suits I no longer wear, and pile up winter sweaters to …
This Little House is Made of Sticks (Julie Thorndyke)
I don’t have many clothes, but the bedroom is already taken up with Liz’s things, so mine are heaped, hung or boxed. My sewing machine is on a folding table …
B (Dimitra Kolliakou)
Before them, under the garden wall, Forward and back, Went drearily singing the chore-girl small, Draping each hive with a shred of black. Trembling, I listened: the summer sun Had …
Dr. Flesh (Elizabeth Kirschner)
Edited by Alise Blayney & Michele Seminara People are harder than birds. They squawk more and it is an unlovely sound, like a sawed-in-half snore. The light in the asylum …
Final Frontier (Joo-Inn Chew)
Between traffic lights the night is dark and shapeless. My father’s van feels like a dented spaceship, dad and I strapped in like astronauts jetting through nothingness. He drives silently, …
Pants (Lesley Boland)
I pour myself a wine from the open bottle in the ice bucket and find a seat on the outdoor lounge. To my left is a play area for the …