The Singing Dark by George Kalamaras

He had heard the three a.m. whistling as if from his own bones. He had fallen asleep on the sofa again with the hound dog who knew how to curl into itself to preserve the dark and all the sounds th…

From Troubles of The World
Roadside Attraction by Jeffrey Schwaner

The frowning top of a ferris wheel. The rotating lights stop, and I wonder for a moment if all time has stopped, too; a streetlight changes and we continue on. But somewhere up there near the top y…

From Troubles of The World
Existentially Speaking

If you want to elevate your discoursejust add “existential”.That dignifies the commonplace with profundity.Dyspepsia, for example, is merely heartburn,but existential dyspepsiais a much more signif…

Richard Greene
An Excuse For Not Returning the Visit of a Friend by Mei Yaochen

Do not be offended because I am slow to go out.  You know Me too well for that.  On my lap I hold my little girl.  At my Knees stands my handsome little son. One has just begun to talk. The other c…

From Troubles of The World
Tulips by Jill Barrie

In our buoyant backyard, mounds of them, washed in pale pink. They bob above the grass, buoys on a sea of forgetfulness. Today we have war. Refugees dodge the sun, sleep on beds of grass torn from …

From Troubles of The World
A Grace by Erling Friis-Baastad

To settle here at last into the longed-for feathertrace of rest, cool sediment of answer root, spider, seed or snail, whatever was once eager humid, scented to be saved just now just as a broken st…

From Troubles of The World
Aphorisms

Cultivation of empathy is a more effective basis for ethical behavior than instilling fear of punishment, here or in the hereafter. We’re too easily convinced that punishment isn’t likely or even (…

Richard Greene
A Manifesto (Written) in Salt by Noelia Ramón

Not proclamations, not carved marble promises, not headlines, not smoke rehearsing its pose. But the hand of wind rearranging clouds, the alphabet of rain sketching itself away on tin, on glass, on…

From Troubles of The World
It Is Not the River Carrying Us Away by Shevaun Cooley

The armoured bream glint and scatter. We bunt the hull against a submerged pylon. The anchor chatters its chain against the gunwale and vanishes. We can feel in the swing of the dinghy how the anch…

From Troubles of The World
Meteorological Memories of the Perth Summer of 2024 by Coral Carter

Week Forecast No rain No rain No rain No rain No rain No rain No rain Fortnight Forecast No rain No rain No rain No rain No rain No rain No rain No rain No rain No rain No rain No rain No rain No r…

From Troubles of The World