He was due at one. At a quarter before he called from the lobby and got Ann Seldom’s voicemail again, so he went up anyway. Continue reading
The Short Tax Return for Individuals
- Start with your name: last first and then first last.
- Do you have a preferred name?
- Have you changed your name since your last return?
- Have you changed your name in the last five years?
- What did your name used to be? (Was it Amanda?)
cold front coming (Akaroa, New Zealand)
the twilight is as green as greenstone
and there’s a cold front coming. Continue reading
Alice
Eleanor lies naked on the bed. No thoughts, she is pale and empty and a little chilly from the air-conditioning. Continue reading
Standing on the Leith Docks
Now’s the day and now’s the hour;
and this December evening
the freshening wind brings
cabbage and a whiff of hashish, Continue reading
Early days
“Generations of Western Australians have grown up with the fable of the State’s huge underground inland sea. Today, the fable became reality with the news from mining company Big Snake Nickel that they had discovered the massive water…” ABC, 7.30 Report, 16 May 2000
Found underground, a sea
in parched WA. Continue reading
Happy now
Satan asks
— Well?
— I never thought much about it. Certainly, I never believed any of this was likely. But I guess it’s what you don’t know that trips you up. I’ve always thought of myself as…well… moral. Continue reading
The best man
Marry me—let’s do it today
and tomorrow we’ll toast tequila
I’ll show you the fires of Manua Kea
and you can show me the dark side of the moon. Continue reading
untitled
Two old palings lean together. One wets a rolly
wrist all knobs and gristle Continue reading
The futurefone
We were in bed when the future called. Lara sat straight up. ‘Oh god,’ she said bunching the bedclothes up against her mouth. ‘Answer it,’ she breathed, her eyes wild and staring. ‘Answerit, answerit ANSWER IT.’ Then she forced a fist into her mouth biting down and next she was hitting out at me arms windmilling like a wild thing, ‘Answer it.’
Continue reading
Peter Frankis writes 