Stories, Poems & Other Writings

By Author

The Red Dress

By Patricia Poppenbeek ‘I don’t want to go,’ I said to my stepfather. I glanced at Mum, but her eyes were on him, her whole body thin...

The Timely Chocolate Shop

By Patricia Poppenbeek I’m interested in chocolate, goddesses (several of whom, like Aine and Queen Mab, became fairies), time travel...

One Day

By Geoffrey Dobbs Samson, my father's old dog, was left behind that morning. He lay at our feet beneath the kitchen table, thumping our...

A parade of ghosts

By Terry Hastings The kid in the photograph is thin and timid-looking. She clutches nervously at her dress with one hand and shades her...

Teaching my mother to dance

By Terry Hastings When music played on the radio, I sometimes tried to waltz my mother around our small suburban kitchen. The polished...

What have I done?

By Ranee Mischlewski When Vanessa decided to take in a boarder she didn’t know about accommodation sites so she advertised in the local...

Upwards or downwards

By Ranee Mischlewski I found it about five years ago on the lawn in the back yard near the lemon tree. By lawn I mean patches of dirt,...

The policeman's suitcase

By Patricia Poppenbeek I have always been one or two people away from access to marijuana and hard drugs. I’ve always known Stewart*...

The Dam

By Loretta Smith We built our first house on the drained wetlands of Aspendale, a southern beachside suburb of Melbourne. It was...