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Train Goes By
If you look past your face’s reflection in the train window, it’s only a glimpse but takes a lifetime to see the dry, hoof-beaten straw for grass, and how it …
Going Under
I’ve been preparing food all morning, even though I’m Nil By Mouth. All four of my wisdom teeth will be ripped out while I’m under. That’s why I must prepare …
10 Word Story
Hi Literary Gangsters. Oh, what’s been on my mind? Oh just letting loose on language, that’s all really. But sometimes it’s fun to keep things tight. I saw a prompt …
Small Things
A one-hundred word story. I’m cashing today’s sales at the bank. Five thousand and sixty-eight dollars. My finger tips steal over the notes. The lady at the teller, I recognise …
A Conversation With Fire
(A 50-word story). Flames lick at the glass like a sexually deviant tongue luring me inside, even the floor boards are warming me up to it. I crawl towards the …
Watercolour Painting
(A 50-word story). I had bought the watercolour painting of the 1920s Melbourne streetscape in a downtown marketplace set at the back of an alleyway edging the very same street. …
The Interrogation
I’m nervous about the questioning. They have me in this chair, a bright light in my eyes. My neck is tightening with the collar around it; I fear I may …
Vitamin Crazy
There’s something in the air. I don’t know what it is. But the people are howling and the stray dogs are quiet and it scares me. The tram rattles by. …
Tram Diary Entry (2)
Rain finds solace in the ends of my straw hair for a moment then is absorbed faster than the trams do pull up before me and he leans out of …
Waxing Lyrical
Sam’s specialty was Brazilians so she easily formed more intimate relationships with her clients who waxed lyrical about Sam’s skill and confidentiality. Sam knew them well: there was the lady …
Mencium Awan
Suatu hari, aku sedang naik sepeda motor sekitar di desa-desa di Bali. Udara aromanya enak karena ada banyak awan besar di langit, diisi air, siap jatuh. Sudah sore, aku menjadi lapar, …
Rubber-band Thoughts
Your toes are connected to your leg-bones and your leg-bones are connected to your tail-bone and your tail-bone is connected to your skull and your skull is connected to your …
Martha’s Picnic
Despite the warnings offered by her friends, Martha decided to go anyway. She scaled her way up the mountain, clutching spiky shrubs and clasping solid tree limbs along the way …
Writer’s Block
Unleash the inner light, the inner thought, the inner shadow that lies in between dos and don’ts, in between yeses and nos, in between comes and goes while the grit …
A Love Story
Too impatient for the lift, he takes the stairs, the tail of his coat nips his heals as he swings his body around each corner railing between floors. In his …
A Cuppa Before You Go?
Guest Post By El Steppenwolf A soft death, the rattle heard in every whispered breath. The flickering television light bleaches all colour. It plays about the tired face, flushed red …
Six Small Holes
Guest blog post by El Steppenwolf Often discredited with having little heritage, Sydney yet has its secrets. Happy white collared soldiers, those oblivious executives and their coffee-makers, march by unknowingly …
Jack
I met Jack, a while back, down at the tavern. He seemed busy looking for something in his schooner glass. All I could see was sediment. Jack, what’s it like? …
Nightmare
It was a nightmare. The sky looked bruised. Wounded. There was a girl. She cried. She threw rocks. She saw a spider trying to walk, its legs kept sticking to …
Rock – Me – Hard Place
I don’t know what’s wrong with me. People never want to talk to me. Everyone just ignores me, walks past me, as if I don’t exist. I feel so lonely. …
