Adelie kept a locked book of recipes for black. Thirty or so, each with its mood and purpose. Every canvas she painted began as one of these shadowy combinations.
Continue reading “Her dark ground by Richard Holt”Fragment from a Western by Mark O’Flynn
… when the horse fell and the rider fell the dust caught them with a tenderness beyond the normal capacity of dust to feel, its race was finished. The horse would never run again.
Continue reading “Fragment from a Western by Mark O’Flynn”Northern Rivers: A Gothic Tale by Moya Costello
To come to Northern Rivers is to find – or lose – yourself among vines, beneath trees, under rain shatter, in flood-marked houses on stilts, within storms of deep, low thunder, high ice-green clouds and lightening startle.
Continue reading “Northern Rivers: A Gothic Tale by Moya Costello”My past is shopping at Woolworths by Shady Cosgrove
I’m trapped between the deodorant and shampoo, trying to decipher my wife’s handwriting, while Joe – my two-year-old– stacks soap into an aisle fortress. I’m re-shelving the boxes when I hear my name, the second syllable a question.
Continue reading “My past is shopping at Woolworths by Shady Cosgrove”My 1960’s by Elizabeth Hodgson
Your long driveway, your rose garden, your blank glass windows, the numbers you gave us—one to fifteen, your clothes, my red & white playsuit, your beds, your dolls, your books the presents you gave
Continue reading “My 1960’s by Elizabeth Hodgson”ski traffic after sunset by Tim Heffernan
iceberg clouds nudge the range to my left while above my grandmother’s junket is the baked skin that holds an early moon in suspension. i am not driving so i learn the landscape. darkness robs the cloud of metaphor.
Continue reading “ski traffic after sunset by Tim Heffernan”Safekeeping by Susan McCreery
On the way back from hospital the day my mother collapsed, I bought some leather-revitalising wax. Her handbag, which I’d taken for safekeeping despite the nurse’s arched brow, was a shabby navy, the strap shot with hairline cracks.
Continue reading “Safekeeping by Susan McCreery”Rear Window by Susan McCreery
He wore a suit well, she thought, despite his bulk. She left him where he lay on the floor and took her martini to the window seat. Time enough to dispose of the body. All she’d need was a stout suitcase or two. She sucked the olive off the swizzle stick and laughed at the idea: Ding-Dong. Avon calling!
Continue reading “Rear Window by Susan McCreery”purple breeze by Haider Catan
at ash season rustling of fronds in my chest could be a smidgen from the last dream, a smoky breeze, a friendly ghost, behind blazing hills dashing along, accelerating, such an unbridled horse, carrying scent from far north, the bushes of purple i know, budding, topping pores up with their cardamom.
Continue reading “purple breeze by Haider Catan”pop up dream by Kathleen Bleakley
i pop home at lunchtime. am surprised to see the neighbours having a party on their front lawn. to hear champagne corks popping. i walk round to my place, hear stilettos clacking on the patio. dolled up women with hats reminding me of prehistoric birds.
Continue reading “pop up dream by Kathleen Bleakley”