luke otley | MY TROUBLED MIND

I dreamed a dozen dreams with my knees brought up propped against the steering wheel, my bladder taut, same as …

The whole wide world is tugging at my skirts with hands that I can’t believe, I’m pushing out and I’m …

Excitement

For a second I didn’t know what it was, and then I realised and I bellowed and I sailed through …

Performance cars lie low like fugitives under the gas station’s arching arm rumbling, out the corner of their blue blinkers …

Freedom is a word, nothing more, some vagueness we gather from grainless remastered photographs, from movies, movies, billion dollar movies, …

Words like ‘major’ ‘disaster’ ‘tragedy’ ‘terror’ ‘change’ and ‘death’ leak like oil from the paper in daily doses. I swallow …

I sat safe on shore with you, playing with the silt we watched families blow their last kisses aboard boats …

I wanted to write simply words that made sense, persistent as grime under fingernails, or ingrained as dirt in callouses of …

Trouble followed me effortlessly across the desert three thousand miles, a dirt shag rug lives at my feet, black armies scurry in …

whether or not I’m a good lover. I’m more concerned with whether or not I’m a good friend. I’m more …

Excuse me, would you accept this? The card is attached to a thick brown arm cut with a heavy silver …

I fumble for the USB jack, and for the keys. Everything is washed in cool light. Immediately my mug is …

‘Would you rather be blind or deaf?’ Deaf, I always answered, definitively. My foot-down certainty sealed the rest away, the white …

I write streams of journals about woe, about life. I decide what is worth sorrow, I say to my sister– …

The procession started, they carved downstream all guts, glory and flags. Ribbons sliced the stillness, an inflatable duck smacked about …

My hands were shaking– I kept a watchful eye on my palms and fingers for fear I might be witness …

I watched a documentary on my phone about Chernobyl. Wow- I thought to myself- Europe a waste and I wasn’t …

I feel him coming through the base of my seat, under my thighs the vibrations spread like disease as darkness holds its …

Unafraid, you off-load your current worries about the fate of your washing-machine. You’re frantic that they may sabotage the smooth …

‘116 one flat white?’ industrious worker bee must be fifteen tops, this kid’s going places, I think to myself, slurping …