In such a small town, everyone knows everything about everyone else. Their address, their birthday, their mother’s maiden name. You have grown used to living in a town where your skin is peeled away, layer by layer, your soul dissected and presented for inspection to people with nothing to do but exchange secrets behind cattle sheds. Sometimes when walking the
The child has broken the window with an orange. I heard its music from the parlour below. The child has spelled my name with his sharp little stars and hide- bound sun and I need only glance to know it, for the pattern is the same: six long shards encircling something other. That is how I spelled my name under the
The woman who I take to be my grandmother takes a long time to come to the door. I can see her moving about in the hallway, inching closer but taking her sweet time about it, stooping to do god knows what. The wobbly pane of glass in the door distorts her movements, so she looks like she’s swaying. I’m
She had done it again. Naked under her duvet, a man lay beside her; a new one she’d found at the pub last night. I watched them through the open window. She sat her back flat against the headboard, knees pulled to her chest while he sprawled on her mattress, a starfish of weathered skin, and muscles shaped by the pulling
A gentle wolf resides on the horizon. A painter’s dream of aquamarine settles in the sky, the mystic palette come to life. A secret hue whose magic truly changes your perception. There is teal in the heavens, aqua in the seas, and turquoise in the hidden in-betweens. This is a destination of the other-worldly that ripples in waves like tropical
Normandy. A sailor without a dock. A boat for a home. A drifter stranded with intent. Serenaded by a traveler’s dream. The sun is his compass. The clouds, his blanket. The ocean, his lover. He retired his map months ago, used it to stuff his pillow. That was the best use for it. He left his anchor on the shore.
We were in bed when I broke the news. The house was quiet, foliage from my houseplants drifting in the breeze from the open window. You propped yourself up on one elbow, watching while I stared at the ceiling, my hair spilling across the pillow. On theother side of the room, the brass Jesus figurine nailed to the drywall splayed
We are delighted to announce the three winners of our 2020 Flash Fiction Contest. The winning pieces will be published in issue 9 of Lucent Dreaming, TBR April 2021. 1st Place Kali Richmond, ‘Life Drawing’ Kali Richmond is a lapsed video artist attempting a closer to nature existence in the north of England. Her poetry and prose has featured in
“Luring them is easy.”
I’m admitted to the ward on a Thursday. I know it’s a Thursday because during the interview to assess my mental state I was asked twice if I knew what day it was. I answered incorrectly both times, just to secure my admission. I’d visited my GP at noon and by six pm I was barefoot having my possessions inventoried
