(edited by Michelle McLaren) I exit Amir’s car at the hospital. My eyes are drawn to a glowing baby in a pram as I enter the toilets. Her mother is …
Fudgepackers (Daniel Young)
“Fudgepackers!” said John, referring to our American corporate overseers. The spaceship-like Polycom phone had only just made a final crackle before falling silent, so my offence at him using that …
Flesh Memory (Elisabeth Murray)
(Edited by Michelle McLaren) Her skin crawled with sweat. She gathered her shirt and let the hot air seethe up her spine, to her bra, to her lymph nodes, where the …
Easily the Hardest Thing (Jane Downing)
Was there any normal anymore? The others in the waiting room were at either end of a spectrum, tottering on an unfair seesaw between the obese and anorexic. The woman …
Mr Noonan to you (J Kane)
You were nine years old you when you woke to find the dentist kissing your penis. Only he would know the extent of the activities that went on while you …
The Rattler (Daniel Young)
Billy passed back the joint, his mouth hot and dry, his brain expanding but feeling too many things at once, wanting more and more and more, but with a queasy …
The Bougainvillea Tree (Laura McPhee-Browne)
for Marjorie Barnard I saw two summers in one year once and I won’t forget it. Only once. I had started to heal by then, and often thought of no …
A Reluctant Sale (Hayley Scrivenor)
He mentions within the first few minutes he is a lawyer. That’s why he can be trusted, he says, because he has a reputation to protect. Personally, I always think there is …
Urban Alphabet (Kristen Roberts)
A is for ‘orses. And cows. But there aren’t any horses or cows around here, so people use it to mulch their flower beds instead. B is for honey. Not …
Project Bali (Alice Allan)
(edited by Jillian Schedneck) Smiles, smiles—how the Balinese can project. – John Olsen, journal entry, September 1973. Mum hadn’t left Australia in 45 years. It took us six months to …