May 2011
5 posts
Temporary hiatus
Due to the impending wedding (and the three jobs he’s working to pay for it) of its founder, CEO and only employee, New Poe is taking a temporary break from reading and publishing submissions.
It will return better than ever later this year - if you’re interested in finding out when that happens, be sure to like the facebook page, follow the Twitter feed or subscribe with RSS.
Jack:...
2 tags
Drowning
by Tristan Layton
The average human can only hold their breath for 1 minute. I can’t remember when or where I found this out, but the words bounced through my mind as my lungs began to burn and my head started to feel numb.
Why is this happening? I thought. The attacker kept dragging me deeper and deeper into the pool at the luxury high-rise apartment block, his hands around my waist.
I turned...
3 tags
Just some girl.
My name is Sarah Edgar I’m only 14 years old so i do not have a website but i will be soon.
I dream of meeting celebrities and falling into deep love, but i am just some girl in this huge world.
I dream of meeting my prince charming, only to know a cannot be with him.
I dream of him being tall, blonde, and beautiful. With a contour no other man has. With not to blue eyes and a smile that...
3 tags
Demolition Lovers
by Rachel B
“Goddamn it, Nolan, what the hell was that?!”
Nolan McMillan sighs from the front seat. He know he owes his best friend, Brent Wright, an explanation for what he’s just done and hell, Brent deserves one. But he can’t come up with one, so he just sighs and says, “Nothing. That was absolutely nothing.”
“Nolan, you just shot a guy, execution style. You can’t call that nothing.”
...
3 tags
Percy Adler #1
by ashleymahoney
I didn’t know what to expect when I walked into the pub. In my line of work, one day people are shooting at you, the next you’re taking a crime boss’ daughter to the prom. I wish the ladder happened more than the shooting.
The cracked vinyl seats were covered in grime, the table-tops hadn’t been wiped in a decade, and there was black muck growing out of the ashtrays.
A bell chimed...
April 2011
2 posts
Precipice
by untappedinkwell
She looked over the edge and took a deep breath. It had been ages since she’d tried this. Did she even remember how? She thought she did. It couldn’t be that hard, stepping forward, bending the knees, and pushing off into the air… it was just one tiny jump, wasn’t it?
It didn’t even seem that high that she’d be jumping from. She just needed to do it. She didn’t even need a...
March 2011
20 posts
to breathe is an oxymoron.
by spindrift
what is this, phantom limb to be found.
it’s profound to think you’re still in my life buggering around thinking you know me,
when you didn’t take a second of time to discover a single thing, beside the fact i can rhyme terribly sometimes.
and you wonder why i rage over text to you late at night, when i try with all my might to fight the urge.
and yet somehow, i can’t. i type...
VIII.
by writelimitless
The pain lay just on the edge of sufferable and overpowering, she would later tell me. Sweat dripped from her hair and skin, and blood-mixed-with-water covered parts of the floor. I stood completely helpless and insufficient behind a pane of glass, only watching.
The complications had begun 10 hours in when she started to lose what the doctors said was “too much blood.” It...
We Fall in Love So You Don't Have To.
by artclasshero
5 days from now i’ll meet and fall in love with the woman of my dreams.
She will be walking in the same general direction I am, she’ll look back at me and stumble a little bit and drop something she is holding. I’ll rush up to help her pick it up, her hand will touch my hand, we’ll exchange looks and we’ll both stand. She’ll say thank you and walk off, I will still be standing...
A Poet Recalls Fiction
by thought-fox
Norm Sacuta I have trouble with friends who want to know what happened. And no, I’m not missing the forest for the trees - The genus, size and shape, even when the author cares enough, will escape me later, become a forgotten shadow at the edge of the moors. I am the worst witness of another witness, read pages and pages without memory of a character’s features. My rhythmic eyes...
3 tags
Adrift
by Shea Garner (athoughtorganic.tumblr.com)
The air curled his nostrils as he made his was through the smoke-filled room. A couple on the couch sat silently. The boy was on his phone as she sipped a glass filled with something less quaint than it appeared. He shifted his focus from the stagnant duo and moved towards the table. Around it sat a few of his friends and acquaintances. The cheap...
2 tags
Abuse
by Leigh
The unhooked clasp on his helmet showed that he wore it just to make his mom happy, it said that he wore it for that reason only, that he’ll wear it, but he won’t be happy about it. Because deep down he didn’t see the point. He didn’t care, it was as simple as that. Maybe he thought there was no way he would die, not today, not him. He could fall, yeah, he knew that, but then again he...
3 tags
Welcome to the Fallout
by Tansy Gardam
So this is what it feels like to be truly alone.
I should probably savour the few minutes I have left, feeling some sort of pride, or satisfaction that I had outlasted the rest.
Instead, it’s only grief.
I hadn’t known Jordan well, but in the last few days we’d spend together, almost certain that we were the last people left, I felt like I knew every thought he had – probably...
Shining Star.28
by baenificial
December 25th 2011
Today, because I couldn’t fall asleep, I woke up early and decided to write my last entry before giving you up. I don’t know what will happen in our meeting. I don’t know if you will answer my questions or if you will even show up. I haven’t seen you since that day at the mall. I wonder what we will talk about… I wonder what will happen. Will you ask for me...
Portraits 3
by flirtingwithhonesty
She rubs at her eyes, precisely the colour of her black tea. Bent almost double at a laptop screen, she leans an angular face on her smooth hand. Her hair hangs like night-time icicles from smooth rock-face; jagged, dark and lovely. Shifting in her chair, she re-adjusts her shirt; pulls it away from her stomach. She collapses her torso into itself, she tries to hide her...
Best Friend
by whateverkath
A soft laugh escaped from your lips. No, I think it’s more of a giggle. Yes. That’s it, that’s what made my heart skip a beat. God, if only I can always see you like this - happy. Well, what can I do. I never knew being the best friend means you talk to me almost only when you’re unhappy. I’m not complaining, really. If anything, I’m honored. It’s just that I don’t like seeing you...
Up on Love Mountain (Short Fiction)
by tendernessofwolves
I’m high in the mountains of Newtucky. Stranded. She forced me from the car with nothing in my pockets but a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. My shoes are wearing thin. These mountain passes are less lonely than I imagined. There are bodies buried here. I’ve stumbled upon two cemeteries since I started down the mountain. Time means very little when it is all at one’s...
Standing in the Shower
by mills
I was standing in the shower, waiting to stop being cold. I knew it was just a question of patience; there wasn’t any need to move the shower-head, to turn around and face the spray, to try and raise the temperature by just a little; in a few moments I would feel just fine. There was no sense in making an effort.
When Jane used to make me shower with her, she made an effort: right...
nitroglycerin
by cannotdieyoung
1.
The condolences bombard themselves into our house. They arrive in such quantity that the front door slides past the swollen hardwood floor, a memory of this past September’s hurricane, as if the words of regret are like oil on its rusty hinges.
2.
Life is such a sitcom. I missed the finale though, choosing the driveway as I waited for the sound of sirens, instead of the...
scalding myself
by seriouslyandersson
“Did you just call my eyes sentimental?” “No idiot,” she pauses. And as I narrow my eyes she continues, “That was the song”. “Oh,” I reply disappointed there was no fight for me to pick with her. My tongue was itching to go lashing. At anyone. Didn’t really matter who. All I knew was it needed exercise. A good fight, or an even better debate. I look over at her, noticing the...
Father Haley
by tymps
“Ahh, Father Haley, how have you been? I’m William O’Malley, from Our Lady of Count Marmel? Ergh, excuse me, Mount Carmel? Over in Logan?”
The man named William’s eyes pleaded for some recognition from the Celebrated Priest as a defendant would plead a character witness, and Father Haley felt sick at the sight of it, the novel of rural quaintness not pulling any of his...
2 tags
smoking on a street corner
I take a drag from the cigarette in my mouth. Letting the smoke twirl around my tongue before breathing it down into my damaged lungs. I really should stop this ugly vice of mine. The smoke warms my chest from the inside. Filling me with a serene calm. Then again what does it matter. We’ll all die at some point. My nana suddenly materialises in my mind, reminding me that drowning in your own...
Sewn
by athoughtorganic
Riding in the car, she sat pressed against the passenger window. With her legs curled to her chest, she let out a sigh and pulled the book she was reading closer to her face.
“Dee?” he muttered, sensing something was wrong. He caught her distracted look from the corner of his eye.
“Mhmm?” she replied.
He hated that. Her lack of acknowledgement signaled that something...
The Edgewood
by xgavenx
This is a short story a wrote a few years ago. It’s sort of my own personal take on Romeo & Juliet, with a little Gift of the Magi thrown in. Over the years people have asked me to post it, but I never got around to typing the whole thing out. Until now that is. Please Enjoy.
The Edgewood
The Edgewood was common ground. It was a dividing line. The Edgewood was frequented by all...
Day 1
by lookingupeverydaythings
I packed my bag before dawn was close to breaking; I had to leave before anyone found out. I would travel as light as possible. But I had to stay safe and be able to protect myself. The Teeluw people don’t spend their entire lives in the tree-tops because of the view. I donned the Hazelignum armour I had inherited from Garren, and I fastened the scabbard that...
2 tags
The First Amulet
by Thalia Greinke
John Manouin was an ordinary man searching for coal back in the 1950’s. He was in a dark tunnel that had been excavated during the last gold rush in the 1800’s when he discovered a lead-lined lockbox. He examined the lock and discovered the key was missing. Using his geologist’s pick, he prised open the box and revealed a lapis lazuli pendant set in gold and platinum. The...
The New Poe of February 2011 is: Darryl Yeo!
Good writing is partly about knowing what to put it, but mostly about knowing what to leave out. Darryl’s story, Israel, My Child, is a lesson in how to leave the reader in the dark. Well done, Darryl - you’re $20 richer.
If you didn’t read Darryl’s story, you get a second chance:
Israel, My Child.
by Darryl Yeo
Journal Entry 257
Date Unknown
Today, Israel caught her first...
February 2011
5 posts
2 tags
A Summer Trip
by ashleymahoney
‘Get back here!’
‘No!’ I shouted. ‘Tez has been planning this trip for weeks! I’m not backing out now!’
Mum was hovering in the background. ‘Callum, sweetie, please just come into the kitchen and talk about this.’
‘No,’ I said again. ‘Dad’s being stupid.’
‘What did you say to me?’
I turned and face him. Dad had a head on me. I was more like Mum; fair hair and blue eyes. Dad was...
2 tags
The Darkness
by ashleymahoney
She watches the blood drip onto the tiles. She doesn’t care that she’ll have to clean it up, erase it from existence. All she can do is stare at the red liquid that gives her life.
She knows that litres of it are being pumped through her body. She doesn’t know the specifics, only that it’d take a hundred more cuts for her to fall asleep.
And then she wouldn’t have to get up...
House Fire
by Jack Heath
I don’t deserve to die, Kathy Connors thought. I’m not perfect, I’ve done some stupid things, but I don’t deserve this. It’s not fair!
The smell of burning books filled her skull, clouding her thoughts – the fire must have reached the study. The kitchen was already gone, plastic plates melting into Dali paintings, the fridge glowing red as the metal cooked.
She ran towards the...
2 tags
An Angel Plume Is Inside All Of Those Who Write
(manuscriptsandbourbon.tumblr.com formerly colvinwilt; real name: R.A. Casilao) My grandmother told me I had a quill growing inside me. I was seven when she noticed I could become invisible if I wanted to; and that when I thought no one was looking, I would eat words. It is bound to happen, she told my parents. Someday, I will overflow language. That or, without acquiescence or self-belief, spit...
2 tags
Spector
by Lucia Liu (http://oceanzi.tumblr.com)
Night was always the most peaceful time, the silence thick like shattered ice. It was only dispelled by the cars that sped by, the lingering echoes of busy people a constant ambiance to the forested little abode. A mug of tea rested on the kitchen table. Andrea felt her joints creak as she flipped the crinkled pages of a book yellowed and worn with...
January 2011
16 posts
2 tags
Israel, My Child.
by Darryl Yeo
Journal Entry 257
Date Unknown
Today, Israel caught her first rabbit. I must say, I’ve never been more impressed with her. And as her prize, tonight’s dinner is going to be none other rabbit. Hah! We haven’t eaten like this in months. Absolute luxury.
I haven’t been able to keep track of the days out here in the desert. The days seem to have molded...
Ghosting
by Zack M. Evans
Growing up as a ghost is an impossible thing. Not to say humans don’t try to do this every day. What I mean by this second statement are those people who find a way to live between the cracks in everyday life. People who have no defining trait; no skill, no feature, no overwhelming downside. Why exactly these people live like this is beyond me, why I WAS one of those people...
Untitled
by comagomoo
The sound of the siren of the ambulance died down as it trundled down the road leaving a deathly silence in its wake. I stood around fiddling with my purse, nearly eight years on the job and I still didn’t know what to do. She tapped me on the shoulder and pushed a cheque into my hand as I turned around. I took it wordlessly secretly glad that I had been spared from the awkward...
The Phone Call and the Countdown
by anonymous
The countdown has begun. From the cold, empty street I can hear the voices of my friends ticking away the closing seconds of this year. I should be inside with them - and i will be - but fifteen minutes ago i had to excuse myself to step outside and take a phone call that i’m wishing i hadn’t took. The weather was calling for harsh snows, winds. It’s delivering. My face is...
Pages from the book mostly formed last night when...
by serenityridesagain
This has to stop. The crazy train must pull over when she pulls the emergency cord. Enough. She’s been all up in knots for months now. Years have gone by and she’s been sitting beneath his window strumming her guitar, playing songs to seduce. She’s held the candle for so long it has more than dripped down her arms; it’s burnt through, gone. Held in the palm of her hand is a...
I saved the one [F].
by julieex-
You asked me what made me fall for you. I said nothing. You asked me what I saw in you. I shouldn’t. You waited for a reply. I couldn’t. Days past by. You asked me if I even love you. I looked down. You waited for me to speak. I didn’t. In the end, you told me you had enough, and so you left me all alone.
The truth was, i’m going to die. But i’ll be dying to save you. I said nothing...
Untitled
by stasiam
Paris was quite chilly for my preferences but it only increases the need to get somewhere warm. I’d arrived here due to a meeting with some French partners of mine but they all canceled at the last minute when I was already here. But, I decided I’d tour the city in place seeing as I had a few days to spare in the area. That was the bigger interest for me.
I’d never appreciated the...
The Second Sign [1]
by sandscribe
“I am hesitant to present this to my Lord, Nassan.” He stared at the stone, chipped away by time and forces unknown. The markings he had come to dread covered its flat, smoothed surface.
“His anger is known to me, yes.” Nassan looked to the floor. He was wrinkled and beaten by the elements. He looked up, and pleaded, his entire life centered around this moment. “But surely, the...
Umbrella
by justanotherwannabeclassic
I had already stepped outside and locked the door behind me before I realized that it was indeed raining, quite heavily too, and that I had forgotten my umbrella somewhere indoors. (I never tended to put my umbrella in the same place, you see.) As it was, I was far too lazy to unlock my front door and run around my house in search of said umbrella, so I went onto my...
Play Date
by untappedinkwell
Will clung to his mother’s hand as they walked across the busy street. He normally wouldn’t hold his mother’s hand—he was seven now—but the street was busy and though he wouldn’t admit it, he was afraid of falling behind, or getting run over.
Besides, today they were going to see his only friend, so he could make exceptions. His friend was a girl, but she could keep up with...
001
by doghouse-reilly
Focus. Focus. Open your eyes and breathe. Daylight, the sun beginning to sink into the horizon, the punishing light of the afternoon still glaring down through the dome, through the maze of buildings surrounding me. Familiar. Painful.
Step one accomplished.
Step two should be automatic, but the human body’s will for self-preservation can only be stretched so far. I think...
The Last Key
by anonymous:
I had been walking in a beautiful forest for quite a while, it was lit in hues of oranges and yellows because of the autumn leaves diffusing the light. As I walked, I came upon a clearing with a dead stump in the middle, I noticed a small glint some from the center of the stump. I approached it. Slowly, I sank to my knees and grasped the small object in my hand, I brought the...
3 tags
The Modern World
by leymahoney
I wrote this a while ago. I got the idea after listening to some music from my favourite band. I love this story and I hope you do to.
The modern world? It was black, bleak, desolate, disgusting.
There were too many words.
Too many deaths.
It was just too much.
This was what Jimmy felt as he walked along, kicking dirt, cans, rocks, anything his shoes connected with. Jimmy was...
The Fish
by Zac Dredge
The glistening fish leapt out of the water, sturdy line trailing behind it. Ralph had never seen its like, a deep indigo with contrasting flecks of crimson. He drew in the slack, little by little; this would show Carl he was the better fisherman. As He battled that immaculate fish, Ralph thought back over the years since he had washed up on this very same shore, with nothing but a...
4 tags
The Transporting Girl (Part 3 of 3)
by leymahoney
Ashley fixed Lachlan up and looked over Sarah’s wounds.
‘Will she be okay?’ Lachlan asked.
‘She’ll be fine,’ Ashley said. She looked at Lachlan. ‘You should tell her.’
‘Tell her what?’
‘Don’t play dumb with me,’ Ashley said. ‘Tell her you like her before it’s too late. You’ve seen what happens to me; danger follows me like a bad smell. Tell her before something bad happens. You’ll...
The New Poe of January 2011 is: Phil Manning!
Phil’s story, Welcome to the Sideshow, was a perfect vehicle for its unique concept and disturbing imagery. Well done, Phil - your $20 prize is on its way.
Missed Phil’s story? Never fear, re-run is here!
Welcome To The Sideshow
by Phil Manning
It seems only natural that the Sideshow is beside the graveyard. It is cold and dark, a low mist clings to the light flickering unreliably...
December 2010
18 posts
Newborn
by nataliekane
‘Here he is! Here’s your boy.’ The midwife beamed at her, cloaked in sweat that had come from a sense of unique achievement. She was handed her son, as delicate as a box of eggs, his yolk-wide eyes singing at her. As if exorcised of some necessary evil, a gasp of fright had flown from her mouth as he was born. She could pretend this was as a result of overwhelming pride, as was...
The Good Girl
by blatantlies
I sat with my back to the corrupted Christ that Liliana had stapled to the wall feeling its presence like a hammer poised to shatter my skull. She was trying to massage the blood back into my hand. I would have laughed at her but I was too tense, my jaw tight to shatter my teeth. “You’ve got a circulation problem,” she said. “Y-yeah,” I muttered. Sitting there with that...
