Writing in a woman's voice

My thanks to Beate Sigriddaughter for including my poem 'The Garden of Earthly Delights' on Writing in a Woman's Voice.

Keeper

My thanks to Michael D Grover for including 'Keeper, From Life' in the Museum of Poetry. 

This poem was written as part of my research for the graphic biography of Mary Taylor. I was almost derailed by my distraction with Miss Emily B's work.

In press

My Puschcart Prize nominated story "Deep Sea" has been nominated for inclusion in the forthcoming Queen's Ferry Press Best Small Fictions of 2015 Anthology.  

My sincere thanks to Blue Fifth Review editors, Sam Rasnake and Michelle Elvy.

Deep art

I'm delighted to have my Pushcart nominated flash "Deep Sea" published in Blue Fifth Review. My sincere thanks to Nazifa Islam, whose art provided the inspiration and title for my piece, and to editors Sam Rasnake and Michelle Elvy for giving me a lovely end credit to 2014 and an optimistic start to 2015.

Not too tight

What Little Town

           

‘When we’re secure.’ The knot’s too tight.

A bright red double decker hisses, honks to a stop. The top’s missing, full of tourists. Here is the church, here the steeple. Look inside. Hunter stops tugging at his tie, gives me his dog carried from the battlefield look. ‘We’ve only been here a month, another, few, we’ll be set.’ He pulls the curtain.

‘I’m late.’

‘Me too. Don’t make dinner.’ The door doesn’t bang.

*

Hunter’s back when the street’s quiet. He hands me a bag, flicks the light on.

‘Art & Antiques,’ cover, Paperweight, 1987, Beverly Hallam: blue and silver glass the size of a tennis ball, plus a vase of white flowers holding down shadows of blinds guillotined by sunlight. I drop it on the bedside.

*

‘Let me.’ Hunter takes the sheets. ‘Cheer up – look on the table.’

It’s the wrong colour and the light goes right through it.

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June is National Flash Fiction Month for New Zealand. This piece is for the Aotearoa Affair Blog Carnival's celebration of flash fiction: Across Borders. Thanks to Dorothee Lang and Michelle Elvy for including it.