I bury my face in my hands. And then Ryan does such a nice thing. He wraps his arm around my shoulders and pulls me in against him. I can feel his body heat through his cotton T-shirt, and directly in front of me are the worn, faded knees of his jeans. But most of all, I can smell him. And he smells sandy-warm, like a beach. No one can see my face in there protected by his chest. Which is good because I can’t stop crying. I mean, I’m really going for the world record in terms of an inappropriate public breakdown. But it doesn’t matter, it just doesn’t matter. I’m sheltered.

‘Raw Blue’ by Kirsty Eagar

3 months ago

3 months ago

I guess love’s kind of like a marshmallow in a microwave on high. After it explodes it’s still a marshmallow. But, you know, now it’s a complicated marshmallow.

‘Graffiti Moon’ by Cath Crowley

3 months ago

3 months ago

I howl.
I howl at the roof like a hotted-up bomb doing donuts, full of screeches. I howl like an air-raid siren, my arms stretched out wide. Howls are like songs. They can’t be summoned; they just happen. They come from a place that I barely understand. And then something else climbs to the surface, something black and jagged, something from the deep. Imagine all your worst feelings surfacing. Imagine coughing up razor blades. Imagine not being able to stop the pain from coming out, and not knowing when it’s going to end.

‘This is Shyness’ by Leanne Hall

3 months ago

3 months ago

But I figure if the world were really right, humans would live life backward and do the first part last. They’d be all knowing in the beginning and innocent in the end.
Then everybody could end their life on their momma or daddy’s stomach in a warm room, waiting for the soft morning light.

‘The First Part Last’ by Angela Johnson

4 months ago

4 months ago

6 months ago

The statesman’s pocket my new cage, he called me a spectre then stole my dialect to wrench the core of men, made me the Braille, dots beneath skin, of a blindman’s game.

‘The Possibility of Flight’ by Lia Hills

6 months ago