Author
facing life one coin at a time Find a penny, pick it up, and all day long you’ll have good luck. Aroha whispered the rhyme, glancing left and right, the rhythm powering up her steps. Magpies squawked and flew up as she approached the rugby field. Her sneakers left shiny dents on the grass, the hem… Continue reading Lucky Day
She’s here to say goodbye. To stock up on memories and use them — as a shield, a safety rope, medicine — once she crosses the threshold of the unknown. Her feet sink into the powdered road dust. Up ahead, the red rock she used to be scared of crumbles in the sun and her… Continue reading The wish
Seven years ago, I enrolled in my first creative writing course — Coursera’s Writing for Young Readers: Opening the Treasure Chest. It ticked all the boxes: it was for beginners, online, and free. I thought I’d write for children. I thought it’d be easy. Little did I know I had entered Aladdin’s cave. For my… Continue reading Aladdin’s Cave
Is it February Seventeenth?, Manu wonders, standing on the kerb of Church street. The flowers in his hand, where did he get them from? Not from the Pharmacy, he hasn’t crossed the street yet. Wild daisies with curly roots and soil stuck to them. From the riverbank then, he thinks, but has no recollection of… Continue reading Flowers for Meredith
‘The bandages would go off in a week,’ you say. I don’t know your voice yet, but I know how to trust it. It reverberates in me, in that forgotten place kept for new love. New love, at fifty-six? ‘Just rest for now, all right?’ It’s a musical voice, a baritone? No, brighter, a velvety… Continue reading First Date
Rostislava Pankova-Karadjova 