John McKeown

      Open Love Letter I’m ready for love now, now that I’m falling apart, now that it’s hard to find a centre where resistance can collect. I’m ready for love now, now that the handful who loved me have gone; more ready than...

Rebecca Shamash

      Magpie Lawn There they are the two magpie brothers strutting their message across the lawn. Inside she watched from the high wide window halfway up the stairs. Halfway. Standing on the stairs. Watching as the magpies spread their lonely black...

Phil Dunkerley

       Well Chilled Yesterday I spent the afternoon with Vladimir Putin. He was in a good mood and kept giving me more beer; he personally attended the barbecue, serving up chicken wings and he laughed and joked with everyone, including me. You could...

Chris Fewings

      Cure I asked the doctor what was wrong with me. He held his stethoscope to my amygdala. Thought there was something blocked. Try writing, he said. I have, I told him. Had to put a bung in my pen. Stuff kept dribbling out. Can’t you check my...

Clive Donovan

      Fairies There is little to be told about them really: they took my teeth, left modest coins and a note sometimes on paper blue, detailing private lives among frogs and wrens, schemes for the bloody stumps, the writing crazed as a butterfly’s...