Breaking the Rules issue -May 2022
Boundary Hunters by Jon Fain
Boundary Huntersby Jon FainIt wasn’t the most extreme thing two people could do, just one of the more flamboyant. The sights and sounds of such a volcanic congress were best kept private, but the public location we were in when the impassioned intoxication struck...
Flip Turn Fantasy by Tara Giroud
Flip Turn Fantasyby Tara Giroudslick skin shoulders roll your blades cut through shimmering wake six feet at least of all too young you your arms free from everything but style strength no ring reach out for more a bit more so much more you pull through and push and...
Jump by Nora Studholme
Jumpby Nora StudholmeEven though he was only my age, not even out of primaries, Luis walked like an old man, all bent over and dragging his leg behind him. He’d broken all of the ribs on his right side and shattered his pelvic bone. There were still shards of it...
Lunch Break by Emma McCoy
Lunch Breakby Emma McCoyIt was when the trees started thinning like balding heads, losing leaves as if they’d never done it before. You were walking to that noodle place on the corner with the low-cholesterol options on a carpet of dead hair-leaves when you passed the...
Poetry Class by James B. Nicola
Poetry Classby James B. NicolaThere seemed no space for saying what is so in poetry without Professor Pine, when asked, 'Is this a poem?' saying No, it's only verse. 'As in a valentine?' I'd asked, 'with red-rose'd heart and yearning blue?' Such verse is not a poem....
Scene at a Department Store by Dave Malone
Scene at a Department Storeby Dave Malone Full many a flower is born to blush unseen. —Thomas Gray You dashed,no faster,you sprinted like a track starno, faster,you sonic-sped after bogartinga third of a clothing rack.folding the goodsinto a...
Silt by Kik Lodge
Siltby Kik LodgeThe man wants a birthday cake for his dead son. The cake shop owner knows this, but the new lad Kyle does not. “As I said, we need four days’ notice.” Kyle’s biro taps the rules and regs inside a sheet protector over his shoulder. The cake shop owner...
Soup by Kate Paine
Soupby Kate PaineThe chug of the dishwasherMeans I don’t hear youCry out,When I stick the knife in your back.I’m in the middle ofChopping pumpkinFor the soup,So I wrench the knife outAnd rinse it in cold water,Snagging a tea towel with which to dry itWhile you slump...
Suparna.Sengupta.Photography by Nayana Chakrabarti
Suparna.Sengupta.Photographyby Nayana ChakrabartiThe woman is wearing a cotton nightie. It is striped and even though the fabric has faded from use and age, Suparna can make out blocks of yellow, orange and black from across the road. She has pulled her hair into a...
The Bird Woman and the Silent Minority by Natascha Graham
The Bird Woman and the Silent Minorityby Natascha GrahamThe footsteps hurried closer, quicker, slower, then quicker still, and Clementine sat and watched, but all she saw was the grass moving this way and that, as though the wind was blowing but it could not decide in...
The Devil’s in the Detail by Helen Chambers
The Devil’s in the Detail by Helen ChambersThe best thing about this art retreat is the wide view it allows across the bay. I paint bold, sweeping strokes on my canvas, then check the detail through my powerful binoculars. I can watch each family on the beach. There’s...
The Sublime Object of My Fantasy by Nupur Shah
The Sublime Object of My Fantasyby Nupur Shah Most days I am able to forget all about having been a once-girl who has to remember that she is a woman-now. This has nothing to do with wanting to escape my body in its precise particularities. For gradually (life is...
Thoughts on Slipping from a 400-foot Cliff by Ed Ahern
Thoughts on Slipping from a 400-foot Cliff*by Ed Ahern*The descent would last about ten seconds, and death is assured on hitting either ground or water. (spiral left)I should have left my wallet in the car (tumble head over feet)No open casket funeral for them...
Uncommon Threads by Carmen Kew
Uncommon Threadsby Carmen Kew‘Look, look!’ The skirt flares around me, a great susurration of rippling colour. Spinning, I can transform inanimate fabric into unfettered joy. I can make it lift and blur, transmuting into a mysterious wave-like substance. Even though I...
