Soliloquy of a Soul Fabiyas M V I feel I’m everywhere, free and wispy. I find love and loss in the wet eyes. How long will I linger in your hearts? Strange were my dreams in the final earthly phase; the unknown lands and the divine vibes. How fast the body […]
Sip of Hope Marion Horton Lips close to mouth purse. Another sip. Swirl and with a gold rim glint flip, chink, be upturned. Practiced. Learned. Black dots of ravens cursing. Owls screeching. Rising from the honeyed base. Spreading omens – last of breaths. Countless deaths. Silent clothes – no jangly, beady. Greasy […]
S.A.D Anne Savage The 21st or thereabouts it starts; when everyone’s alight or wrapped and giving. My life Gurgling like a strangled straw when the drink runs out Shrinks down and out as light Spins into empty. A few grey hours every day, Darkness laughing from the edges chews and bites a little more […]
Mrs Robinson Ellie Piddington In his den she smokes two of his Havana cigars onto the run, cracks open a bottle of Bourbon, leaves the Pearsons’ Alsatian thrusting at the cushions. ‘Please,’ she’d said to Benjamin. ‘Please,’ she’d said again. Arms folded firmly across her chest standing in the tall grasses, like […]
Two Minutes Ruth Taaffe Notes fired crack against our ears, fill the air like smoke after gunshot blooming over a field. He leads our collective stumbling with his solo, shuffles us into respect at the ricochet of his tune. The young bugler lowers his instrument, approaching the climax of his task. We […]
Sunshower Riley Sutton If there is peace to be had in this world, it is next to a clear windowpane as a thunderstorm beats its drums in the distance. With water slicing through the sky in a diagonal marching line, unbeknownst to the rules of physics and even gravity, you can watch the sky […]
The Woman Vegetable Vendor Fabiyas MV She pulls her handcart through her dream-debris. Now her PhD is just an agonizing adornment. She’s been denied white-collar jobs for religious reasons. Even a name is flammable in the fanatic drought. Here religion doesn’t purify, but petrify. Yet she surfaces, scuba-diving through her secret sorrows. […]
The House Plant Fabiyas MV Her possessor won’t let her grow beyond his conservative outlook. Her taproot is chained in the pot. Even her pale patches are decorations. Living among the plastic plants is choking. She’s denied sunny kisses. Rain’s romantic whisperings, she’s never exposed to such ecstasies. Her wound attracts […]
Northern Lights Sue Hoffman Green-born: a blessing; a child to unite tribes. Red-born: a gift; a child to bring joy. Yellow-born: a mystery; who knows the child’s fate? But I was born when the night was black, when the sky-dancers slept, their coloured capes folded to cushion weary heads, and […]
Hidden Rachael Barnes-Powell My father collects model trains Engines, stations, trees – all miniaturised populate his shed His own personal paradise over which he is god Plastic bodies lie cold Waiting for him to bring them to life I was allowed to watch as he worked in mausoleum-like silence […]