Waiting for Bluebeard The child in the garden wears a coat collaged from the skins of paper, sutured with lengths of my hair. I am inside the house in a matching coat. There is no one to tell us...

Gran’s Staircase Her voice was ringing in my ears. I was Violet Elizabeth Bott, screaming and the burnt pan stood, unwashed, on the draining board. She’d go to and fro through the shop door or into...

  A World After Proverbs Where there is plenty, take plenty; Where there is little, take it all. - Irish proverb When the hour drew Motholoch to Rathlin, breasting the signal from Marconi’s...

House Party About 3am we were awoken by a strange voice in our bedroom, voices actually, a conversation, several people tiptoeing up the stairs and something being dragged, thunking on the stairs as...

Clocks n Clouds Old wind-up clocks, the tic and toc. Once they were the metaphors, the Wind-Up Universe, the hand, the key. Let it run until it slows and slows, until we all ask, bemused, “Why are...

The Lady of Shalott He set himself adrift, a soiled mattress on a river of discarded lager cans. The only company he kept a solitary picture ripped from a clinic waiting room. He watched her, mouth...

* sprawled on a hill overlooking a highway we drink prosecco * Fresh, fruity lip balm Sticks to my hair as I walk Smile as he passes   *Amanda Neufeld is currently pursuing an English degree in...

Sundays This, the first sad Sunday when leaves puddle into corners, rain sweeps sky, air tastes of ashes and all those other Sundays stack up like tins of salmon waiting for Sunday visitors who...

Janus the morning brought sheets of grazing snows fighting for feet amidst memory of spring at times like these the promise of hope is a seasonal shift, an answering mind brought on winds which whip...

Little Corpses Never walk on a frozen lake. It may appear as thick as your arm But the silent water deceives with places Of thinness, beneath bridges and where trees Slant over; the eager crack and...