Tag: Prose

  • Doomsday, Man

    Doomsday, Man

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    by

    Zoe Petersen
    in

    I’m no blushing bride when it comes to a good snog sesh, but someone’s stank ass breath can really kill the vibe.      This gaping maw throws an absolute rancid gush of air at me, landing like a wet sock across my cheek. I am not breathing that. Not chill, dude. Their little liver-purple tongue is…

  • Hold the Note

    Hold the Note

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    by

    Adrienne Slattery
    in ,

    It’s late morning, and the paterfamilias has donned his formal attire. The toga cloaking the loose folds of his chiton is blue with a fluffy grey lining on the collar and sash. His bare feet are swathed in a pair of long woollen socks, pulled high over the rolls of his baggy grey sweatpants. From…

  • Seven Strands – Candace Zalloua

    Seven Strands – Candace Zalloua

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    by

    The Tert
    in ,

    The first string was violet, as many were. A co-worker I rarely spoke to, apart from telling her coffee orders. I refused to be excited because I refused to be brave. Then one day, she knocked three coffees off the machine that she was in the middle of making. Hot coffee poured onto her hands,…

  • Can one Coco Pop make chocolate milk?

    Can one Coco Pop make chocolate milk?

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    by

    The Tert
    in

    I sit in the empty public bus, my brightness up, my ears submerged in Michael Jackson while delving into an array of Buzzfeed quizzes such as, “What Disney Princess Are You?” (Cinderella) or “Do you remember the entire Twilight series?” (I do). A rich concoction of tunes remains in the queue, a playlist composed of…

  • The Season of My Hibernation and Rebirth – Mya Hicks

    The Season of My Hibernation and Rebirth – Mya Hicks

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    by

    The Tert
    in ,

     My transformation began with a single wiry hair—long, grey, jagged at the end—sprouting from under my chin where the flesh is doughiest. I’d always uprooted these rogue hairs as soon as they reared their monstrous heads (as a girl I was taught to be meticulous when it came to my appearance) but on this day…

  • WE ARE ALL BEETLES – Jacob Wood

    WE ARE ALL BEETLES – Jacob Wood

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    by

    The Tert
    in ,

         All morning he twined the coarse rope through his hands. But now he was just trying to ignore the agonising thudding beneath the angry anthill that had formed on his left forearm. It was tipped a violent red and sensitive to any sort of glancing touch. The skin there was gummy with sweat, pus building…

  • Cameron Ling – Sarcasus Sarcmus Behishd – TTPAPC 2022 Prose

    Cameron Ling – Sarcasus Sarcmus Behishd – TTPAPC 2022 Prose

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    by

    The Tert
    in ,

             The first time I visited Sarcasm the guy at the gate checking ID cards told me I wasn’t weak enough to be seeking refuge.                                                       …

  • Mya Hicks – I’m Beginning to Think Differently of You – TTPAPC 2022 Prose

    Mya Hicks – I’m Beginning to Think Differently of You – TTPAPC 2022 Prose

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    by

    The Tert
    in

    On Saturday nights, we have dinner at a restaurant she selects from a list on her phone of Trivago’s Top Places to Eat Out in our city. This is our thing, our couple’s thing.   In the bathroom mirror, I watch her reflection sweep black liner across her glossy eyelids as I struggle to gel…

  • Matilda Reid – Crepe Paper – TTPAPC 2022 Prose

    Matilda Reid – Crepe Paper – TTPAPC 2022 Prose

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    by

    The Tert
    in

    ‘I can see all of Sydney from up here. It’s fucking beautiful, Mum!’ were the last words my son would speak to me. Or shout, rather, from the top of the Norfolk Pine. Then would come the creek and snap of its tallest branches, the thumping of my heart, and the thud of his body,…