I was a slack kneed and muddied good girl
Shivering with secret delight when the bear
Tore the salmon into chunky flesh food …
Author: Zoe Jane Patterson
Wendy and the Mermaids: A Peter Pan Tale
Far away, in a place called Neverland, there is a special rock pool in the mermaid lagoon where baby mermaids wiggle and splash their fins. Their tired fangs gnaw on fish bones and call out at different frequencies, testing their voices on the most powerful notes …
The Invisible Cities: Paidiá
You may ask how I came to know this city, considering the restrictions placed on those allowed to enter it, so I’ll admit that I have never laid eyes on it myself. This recollection was told to me by a young man who had just left, his eyes full of regret and something else …
Ofelia and Ophelia
Her spirit, a fairy flickering insect itch / Inside of her / Dead on the floor …
Times Square, 2am
The girl wanted chicken McNuggets. Worse than she’d ever wanted anything in her life. She wasn’t just hungry, she was ravenous. Like the eyes of the men she passed. “I can take care of you sweetheart. I know what you need,” one murmured. What she needed was nuggets. Desperately. Nine of them, golden brown and dipped in sweet and sour sauce …
Frida
I see myself through the shop window / My quiet knees, my hair rain-fluffed. / Scrabbling at scraps of Frida’s …
It’s a Good Time to Be Lonely
I’m holding his red sweater, stolen. The monster he bought for me at Comicon. The colourful string of lights he got for my dorm. It’s undeniable, even after a year and a half of being single, I’m still lonely …
I’m yelling goodbye to my Mother
And I think it’s hard to hear above the din; / The files sch-sch-sch / Across our fingernails …
Aircraft Cabin
Home is a collection of things
/ It is a hand-crafted alibi to prove
/ You danced, wore,
/ read, wrote, breathed…
Heart, Star, Winky Face
What your top 3 emojis say about you / Pin them like a name-tag and / WELCOME …
Strayed: A Sonnet
Tethered she snarled, the girl gone lupine / Refused the food he offered through her cage. / Strips of a crime; sweet hare meat soaked in brine / Slaughtered that morning at too young an age…
A School for Little Witches
“What a little witch.”
Esther overheard it, passed like a note from her third-grade teacher to the fourth-grade teacher, and she knew that they were talking about her. Both adults glanced at her, and let their guilty eyes slide sideways when they saw her watching them…
Tender
Swathed in cherry fabric and saffron sands / Al Ain, that green stitch to cradle / You and I dragged sleepily from …
