'Flash' writing anthology about chronic pain - submissions welcome!
Welcome to my evening. I would love to simply kiss my husband goodnight and doze off. TURN OVER, I have taken my evening medication, all six of them. TURN OVER. My husband starts his evening purrs, just his rhythmic tiger sounds use to aid me to slumber. TURN OVER. No more can I find that […]
It came to visit last week. No warning at Three am. One turn in my bed and here it is. Stealing my long breaths. Grasping the hand rail, I try to turn on my side. The red-hot cattle prod steals my spine. The pain splinters through my nerves screaming. One, two, three jabs in seconds, […]
Our minds latch to narrative, it’s how we learn, remember, interpret. I went to hospital to have a baby, I should’ve returned more, not less. Subtracted: my ability to rise, walk, move; In my pelvis, broken bone. What is the premise? What is the character’s motivation? What is the hook? That feeling: ochre, electric, waist […]
From our window, the clouds seemed static, frozen. Orange-and-green taxicabs drove through the slush six floors down. Tilly whimpered, buzzed for the nurse, asked for Dilaudid, whispered “good morning.” Swaddled in her sheets, she breathed hard. Phenolic air. She asked me how I was feeling. We lolled in our beds, our mothers asleep in their […]
My grandma had 7300 sleepless nights Until a Shanghai doctor said ‘You have restless legs’ Pills prescribed Leaflet read, Pramipexole Hydrochloride The 1st good night’s sleep In the 7301 nights. by Xie Licheng UK
she is in the sauna drinking coke and eating salted peanuts one knee resting against the hot wood, silvery hair damp and sticking to her shoulders we discuss midwifery and the what it’s like to catch a slippery baby in your palms she is standing in seal skin coat with white fur collar beside the […]
Pain paralyses. It hurts too much to move, to unlock, unhinge my joints, put pressure on my tender limbs. I will wait for my Carer: my lover, my friend, who will lift me from my bed, magnificently. My arms encircle his neck as I breathe in the salty sunshine of his skin, pressing my lips […]
Pain permeates her dreams, Seeps into this anaemic morning. Sucking breath to unhinge each joint stuck fast through the cramp of night. The bathroom is an agony away, Tender feet must scrape each step while Wincing fingers trace the rails along her jagged journey. Tap turners levered by cankered wrists bring the gush and plunge […]
you sit in my throat like a stone in shoe eyes dry as bone. bones hurt. why cry? these days that feel different but all so same. little belly wrenches all the time as though to be freed from something tonsils i should rip them from my neck. daft neck neck forever stiff but why […]
Helplessness. It’s worse for me you know. You are only suffering but you do that every day. But every day I wake up and with the reddened sky I know that I can never help you. Hopelessness. It’s worse for me. You can imagine a cure or some relief though you know – you know […]