Joe kicks the earth. Dust puffs and powders his worn boots. A few spits in the wind and a muddied sky raised his hopes but the feeble intimations have amounted to nothing. He crouches low and scans for signs of life. Red ants, a few beetles. Flies. The sinuous path left by a snake. […]
Competition Twenty-Eight Shortlisted: Between Dust and Desolation Read More »
One I dream you bend your head towards me, and our lips briefly touch before we hear the key in the lock, the bellowed, ‘I’m home’ from below. Two I have the fleeing dream where I’m like a roadrunner from a cartoon. I run and run going nowhere until the dream reveals
Competition Twenty-Two Shortlisted: FOUR OF THESE FIVE DREAMS TURNED OUT TO BE TRUE Read More »
The Hollywood mirror mocks her, squalls, appalled. It highlights lines, puffs, and sags. “Fuck you. I own it,” Queen retorts. “No more Pritikin, Atkins or Keto!” She spins a pair of silver scissors and admires their infinite helix reflections. She stabs at gaseous kimchi, stabs at traitorous red apples. Stabs the privy council
The cicadas hum. The warm air smells of recent rain. We drive west, climbing the Waitaks, blinking through summer shadows as the narrow road carves through deep bush. We listen to Icehouse thinking it’s cool. Thinking we’re cool in the blue VW beetle with boards on the roof. From the viewpoint high above Piha,
Competition Eleven Highly Commended: PUMPING AT PIHA Read More »
If today you had ridden up onto Great Bentley Green to join the park up and pints and the ‘alright?’, ‘alright? with the slaps on the back, then the sandwiches would be cleared, and the hot pasties removed, and the small custard squares and chocolate brownies returned— uneaten—and The Plough would serve drinks from enough
The Sun Still Insists Upon Rising Read More »
