Trigger Warning

PEOPLE OF A SENSITIVE NATURE ARE ADVISED THAT THE FOLLOWING EXTRACTS EXPLORE FAMILY DYSFUNCTION AND ABUSE ISSUES

Zero Gravity

Gayle J. Greenlea

Excerpt for 11 November, 2021

<chapter> Two continued

        While Siobhan was nipping the hair of the dog on Oxford Street, Hilary took the train to Kings Cross. She’d found some clothes she kept in her stash at Ryan’s place: brown skirt with turquoise threads running through, turquoise blouse and pale brown and teal batik-print scarf which she tied around her neck. Boots finished her off. Showered and dressed, she felt almost human. Thank God for coffee. It gave her mind some semblance of order and calmed the headache.  
         Hilary had a lead she wanted to follow. It may be the weekend, and she wasn’t assigned, but that had never stopped her. In fact, if her boss Martin Goundry at the Sydney Morning Herald knew what she was up to, she’d have some explaining to do. She exited the train station and walked the short half-block to an innocuous charcoal-coloured building on Kellett Street. There was no sign to mark its identity. Only a large number “52”.

-Gayle J. Greenlea

YOU’RE THE DEAD TO ME

Second week – Growing – Day Eleven

Day Four

Dead leaf asks the Earth:
“Have I ever been stone dead?
“No, just recycled.”

-Paul Brookes

Bios And Links

-Gayle J. Greenlea

is an American-Australian poet and counselor for survivors of sexual and gender-related violence. Her poem, Wonderland”, received the Australian Poetry Prod Award in 2011. She shortlisted and longlisted for the Fish Poetry Prize in 2013, and debuted her first novel, Zero Gravity, at the KGB Literary Bar in Manhattan in 2016. Her work has been published in St. Julian Press, Rebelle Society, A Time to Speak, Headline Poetry and Press, The Wombwell Rainbow, Fevers of the Mind, Kalonopia and The Australian Health Review.