i’ve been getting into coffee again, says the one with the hollow bones,like i always do when the spirals behind my eyes start tightening again;if you look you’ll see it there, the end of the string that can be pulled out from the iris.the constriction is pleasant, head full of bees and old, old (now... Continue Reading →
rusted silver
if you ever want to look for me, i'm exactly where you think i am. the old house is exactly as you left it, if you look past the thin glassy dust that got left on the surface. if you're not afraid to stick your soft hand into the rotting cabinet you might still find... Continue Reading →
forgotten garden
there are only two paths at the end of the garden. you know this, you've lived it these past eight years. and no matter how frozen the moss gets when you stop turning the sun on, there are still only two ways to leave this place. with your palms open in defeat or with your... Continue Reading →
Vices and Virtues: The Hero in Poldark
(Originally posted here.) Image: a picture of myself giving this dissertation to Aidan Turner. Source: Amanda Steel. Used with permission] Abstract This research will consider the portrayal of heroism in the first four novels of the Poldark series. Heroes are generally considered to be perfect individuals, who always make morally correct decisions. They stand for the values... Continue Reading →
crimson coalmines
there was a lot about that past life that you didn't understand. less still that you remember. it doesn't come back the way you think it would, either, all flashes and waves and big scenery. you rarely catch the bright pictures or shadows left behind in the mirrors. instead, it's all ripples. they spread outward... Continue Reading →
parasitic
i don't like to dwell on it. but. when i pick them up, the knives are oddly familiar. i think they were pointed at me, once. blocking all the sunlight out of the meadow and streaming deep into me, linked and interlinked and woven together like the threads of fate, with just a little less... Continue Reading →
wisps for the winter
it's looking cold more than it’s feeling cold, these days. forget free-form writing, forget talking and thinking, all i have is moving with your eyes closed and tearing things open with your teeth. and the flashbacks, i guess, but that’s a whole other thing. it was fun though, wasn’t it? yes. it was. you know... Continue Reading →
the last gatekeeper
Leif Irlin wasn’t a miserable man by any stretch of the imagination. Being the gatekeeper wasn’t hard, really, was it, it just required some standing and thinking. Both of which he was perfectly equipped to do. He was tall, handsome by anyone’s standards, his black hair was spiky no matter what he did to it,... Continue Reading →
fragile scarecrow
Soft as a thistle in the field near the town, wiry as the fences wrapped around it, was Loritz the scarecrow, Loritz the has-been and never was, a waif and a stray and most damning of all, entirely unemployed. He was there in the morning, laughing at the crows who wouldn’t have stopped to give... Continue Reading →
broken highway
we can keep talking if i talk with my mouth closed, heart open, heart closed, endless cycle.whether my mistakes lead to the holes in your chest is one thing but magic was never my strong point, anyway. and you didn’t mind, so long as you could give the people what they came for. it finally... Continue Reading →
savanna
being selfish is not the fatal flaw you once thought it was. it was worse. the room is too wide for you, too wide for anyone else to fit inside and make a nest with three little baby blue eggs. it’s humid. it could be dusty. the room isn’t held up by twigs from all... Continue Reading →
grey slumber
something about this world is too solid. there’s not enough of the air that there once was before in this town, sharp and cold and full of something that could brush through your very eyebrows but not leave a trace. something about the sunlight screaming into my eyes is making me miss the soft warmth... Continue Reading →
an interesting view.
in this storythere are no victims or villains or winners or kingsonly a man in a dark rooma man at the front doora jangle of keys and the click of a canclick. it’s open.there is no fear but there isa flinch that doesn’t go away when the sirens soundand a mark that has long since... Continue Reading →
chariot
hello, i said, i think i’m bleeding againyou take me out past the park and we sit by the river.i am bleeding, we both agree. crimson drops on his old sweater that i wanted to chuck out, but didn’tand i tell you about her, curly hair, eyes like the sunand i mention the new him,... Continue Reading →
golden fervour
Through the glass I watch them, all bright smiles and shaky photos from a party, anchored with drinks that change colour every time I close my eyes. From the outside I watch the whole ugly scene and forget the old uniform. It’s a new skin now; armoured like a king, angry like a soldier. Let... Continue Reading →