An Omen

Womanhood sits in my mouth, rotten. Boys feel around, hands like cups, Suctioning, fish-like, leaving half-moon Bite marks and blushes that vein out To hearts that do not know how to heal. They wonder why my response comes Flatlined, I guess I can’t reply when girls have to die before they come to life.

Dream with Death

Simon Chen She was in her childhood forest again: her hair was still crimson silver, but her face had no wrinkles. She had become younger. She wore her hoody again, and she had a pack of food and drinks in her hand, enough for her to travel three days. The forest had not changed much: […]

Seven Minutes

One A balmy breeze stroked Cecilio’s skin as he skipped through the Farnborough meadows with his five-year-old daughter, Aleida. Hand in hand the father daughter duo created a pathway in the high grass, trampling on the daisies that began to sprout out of the ground. Exhausted, the pair reached the small cottage they lived in […]

Suffer the Children

Pigger pulled on his clothes like a zombie. These days he didn’t care what he wore; not since Ne—, not since the accident. That day, he’d walked through the chill five o’clock darkness to the abyssal yawn of Ollerenshaw’s No.8 as Chalky wittered on about Beeching’s Axe. Pigger didn’t care; he was more occupied trying […]

Behind the Door

I killed my family but it has taken me 12 years to realise this. The large wooden door at the end of the garden stood against the wall. Chipped-wood poked out from the door like hedgehog spikes. The blue paint seemed to have faded over the years. Don’t go behind the door they said, ignore […]

City of God

Before Roz knew it, she was in the land of Caipirinha’s carnival, mystery and the sultry golden rays of the sun. She had always wanted to see the Christo statue over the city of Rio. Somehow in a very distant corner of her mind, she believed that she had been here before, and she laughed […]

The First Light*

At first light we begin anew, Only to repeat the deeds of yesterday. Caged in as animals are at a zoo Awaiting validation from strangers, Without a care in the world of the smoke rising behind us. At every light, we wilt a little more With every beat of the drum. Fading away, an hour, […]