Category: 2017

Vivienne Bailey   Grains of sand grate against the soles of Hope’s feet, sticky specks of beach memories. The city pavement seeps up through her rubber Jandals, fingers of ice slicing between her toes. Last night she’d dreamed of Tokomaru Bay. The old wharf reaching out into surf-tipped sea, its…

Helen Vivienne Fletcher   I didn’t invite you in. _ You slipped in through a door _ I was sure I had locked. _ You covered the windows, _ disconnected the phone, _ put away all the mirrors. _ _ My arm was bleeding. _ You took my chin _…

Helen Vivienne Fletcher   He touched my arm _ at the end of the night. _ _ This will probably be _ the only time we meet, he said. _ Though we might see each other _ on the street one day _ and we’ll both give fake smiles _…

Wesley Hollis   It’s cold. Or so my temperature gauge tells me. But the sun will be up soon. I like when its rays hit my solar panels, charging me up, getting me ready for the day’s adventures. _ This planet is named after a fearsome and mighty warrior god.…

Olivia Aroha Giles   The office wasn’t what Lois had expected. The walls were eggshell blue and the furniture was feminine and comfortable. There was even a vase of fresh roses on a low glass coffee table. _ ‘I’ve never had therapy before.’ Lois flicked a glance at the therapist…

Nicola Easthope   The external world is revolving around me, says the child, while the teacher revolves gently around the circumference of a larger circle.   Through a drone’s super fish-eye, school would be an amphitheatre on the margin of a west coast thrust six centimetres north during the second…

Nicola Easthope   Sit quietly with your eyes closed. Let your breath slow and fuuu– you’ve spilt your sweet milk tea in the lotus of your lap. Remember your breaths. Visualise the fawn heat fertilising the lower half of your body   burning, moist, vital soil. In your mind’s eye…

Rob Hack for Scott Guy _ _ The young men are restless, generation x y kill _ ambiguous gender vicarious thrill _ soft and hair free, pyrotechnic on RTDs. _ Crazy old life, Toffler’s Future Shock _ _ the silver tsunami, the end of a golden age _ who bought…

Rob Hack   Clouds now, and a breeze from Antarctica _ Clipboard carriers darting about. _ Public bar greeting: what you lookin’ at mate? _ Soap opera news, and soft cocks in charge. _ _ So he left New Zealand forever for the third time. _ Wouldn’t come back despite…

Janet Colson   I don’t remember when I left you exactly, except it was definitely ‘I – left – you’. Fact. You couldn’t leave me because you hadn’t left him, if you see what I mean.   Come to think of it, I do remember. You parked your shoulder on…