Karen Lethlean

“Street Creatures ” by Karen Lethlean

Submitted to Contest #168

Street creatures. You know it’s not the best way. You never should have left the people walk-way. Now you’re no closer to home and light is beginning to fade out of honeycomb colored sky. Not just blue anymore, more likely a dirty through to flint grey, or shades of dull brown blending into shadowed gold when late afternoon sunlight almost breaks through festered warned air. Now you must get to the station. Wait here for a while in this shelter to catch your breath, harder now to fight through thickness. You need to make ready because you c...

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“Too Deep Down ” by Karen Lethlean

Submitted to Contest #167

Too Deep Down In my head, there is no lead up, or warning signs, maybe being center of this whirlpool; I am daydreaming; dealing with social distance, no job, not being able to see my family, meant I couldn’t see eddies nor feel how my world went further eschew. Looking back, I wonder if I was a different person, who fell into a hole, thought myself unable to cope. Or perhaps I simply couldn’t keep up with how life was changing. Did I fear abandonment? Aloneness? A microbe severing links with my fellow man? Who can analyze human behavio...

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“Homecoming Soldier ” by Karen Lethlean

Submitted to Contest #164

Homecoming Soldier On one of my first Army duty rosters which included four days off I decided to make a trip home. A chance to rekindle fading connections with my west coast heritage. Perhaps because I went straight from on-duty shift to airport departure spaces, I wore my uniform. Out in public, displaying visible trappings of my new army girl status. Making a statement about my profession as a public servant. Needed to store my hat in overhead locker. Listened to announcements about, ‘items may shift…’ At least hats issued to army girl...

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“Visitor ” by Karen Lethlean

Submitted to Contest #156

Visitor ‘Don’t you remember.’ Some one at the part says to me, which I struggle to come up with an answer, and then the whole events come to me. He was the weedy guy from Steve’s party, skinny with tight jeans. Funny to think of the lack of bum curve that was part of those back pockets. Why is it that guys think ill fitting pants with a crouch hanging down is attractive? Based on that assumption this bloke was a trend setter, with jeans that clung to his butt, either that or this guy’s been out of circulation a few style changes. More than ...

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“Apologies ” by Karen Lethlean

Submitted to Contest #155

Apologies Lucas fell asleep late one night and left gas burning on the kitchen range. When he realized, hotplate grates glowed red hot, and surrounding room space smelt like dead fish. Could gas meself, he thought. Never happened if Freyda still lived here. She’d hide his drinking buddy, Jack Daniels away. As she’d done a lot lately. Plus chiding him to drink less. What had been her problem? He only hit her once. And apologized. After sighting those bruises which shadowed her face a few days later. Despite a bouquet of roses, he came...

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“Breathless ” by Karen Lethlean

Breathless Tonight! He swore under his breath. Same old internal dialogue surfaced…tonight I will see her! I will leave this depressing atmosphere, I will escape this whole shitty struggle. Those words echoed like a church choir’s mumblings, bouncing off rafters. Ever since that last big family dinner, with all her relatives getting at him; harping on about how he should ask for a raise now he has three kids, upgrade that car to something more family wagon, start looking for a larger house in a better neighborhood and so on. John vowed to c...

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“Break the Cycle” by Karen Lethlean

Submitted to Contest #151

Break the Cycle. In my teenage year’s summertime meant heat and boredom. Laid out like an offering to Sun Gods on a blanket of stagnant damp, because towels soaked up sweat, Le Tan, or coconut oil products. Advised by a skin specialist in a plush Subiaco office, to rectify teenage acne by, ‘get as much sun as you can.’ Obedient out of respect for sums my parents paid, a row of framed degrees, and innocent of how men could manipulate. A time long before I learnt about worldly complexities. Dead mussels lined shores, also rotting in glare,...

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“Move Away Humans ” by Karen Lethlean

Submitted to Contest #149

Move away Humans             Well into an eerie evening, as twin suns withdrew light from hills appearing to encroach air whispered, here comes night, beware! Someone should switch lights on. Sitting on verandahs, mesmerized by views off into thick trees, unhindered by walls of scrubs were hikers and their leader. Close together, enforcing one another against a sense of isolation dusky surroundings evoked. Flickering lights came over the verandahs, dulled views. The National Pa...

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“Take a Photo ” by Karen Lethlean

Submitted to Contest #144

Take a Photo Alan finds a glade with no overhead branches, stops and takes a photograph. If Winds continue to blow branches might come crashing down if winds blow up. Legs burning from walking in, focused on his mother’s presence. He finds it impossible to stop remembering her words. ‘Won’t be easy, but after you’ve spread my ashes, you will be caretaker for this place. Visit me, occasionally.’ Underfoot only hard ground, rough with exposed pebbles. Surface sand aright, but a clay base baked so hard he can’t drive in tent pegs. After fus...

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“Family Camping ” by Karen Lethlean

Submitted to Contest #143

Family Camping This was a family event. Heading into the forest, woods or as us Australians like to say. Bush, not the type of bush a surfer keeps in his groin. Unless he or she shaves it off. Another story that I learned in primary school was about Sir John Forest, a dignitary who never wanted Western Australia to join the Commonwealth. As we set off again, wind stiffened sending an armada of clouds scuttling across the sun. Cooler now, and I am glad of my red bobble hat. Angry gusts rustle along the shore, intensifying the briny, slig...

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“Amid Shelves ” by Karen Lethlean

Submitted to Contest #142

Amid Shelves Simmons Library was a melting pot of haves and have-nots, a mixture of homeless people and older residents of nearby neighborhoods. Many of them with heads down, engrossed in various books. Others using computers, particularly printers which were available for internet usage. Gwen didn’t like to think of herself as particularly well off, sometimes she struggled but did dwell in a house. Close to six years since Ted passed. Her biggest problem, a car loan Ted took out. Too big a car for her and too uncomfortable in traffic. Bl...

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“Dine Out Dates ” by Karen Lethlean

Submitted to Contest #140

Dine out Dates This happened back in the days when dating someone happened face to face, you found special places to be together, ventured far from the maddening crowds. Sat quietly and partook of wine and food, exchanged small talk across a table. Before on-line-ville, drug addled dance parties, dating sites and being told to …get a room. Not so long ago I decide to ask the man I’d been part of this scene with, several decade ago, what he remembered. I tried to see his point of view, invade his thoughts. He did assist by volunteering n...

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“Silence is Golden ” by Karen Lethlean

Submitted to Contest #140

Silence is Golden Once upon a time – A good beginning; warm and familiar you may say. Everything must have a beginning. Once upon a time; belonging to myth and fairy tales, does not seem to fit, but will have to do. This was a time when the world seemed a ‘Noah’s Ark’ society and I am the single who didn’t fit. I might have documented a case of ‘survivor syndrome’ being the survivor of a broken marriage and working full-time shift work, supporting a child. I was burdened and fragmented. Somehow, someway the pieces ha...

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“Ultimate Fantasy ” by Karen Lethlean

Submitted to Contest #137

The Ultimate Fantasy. Ceaseless winds all night; weather prediction mentioned likelihood of passing storm fronts. Seasonal changes rolling up from the south west pushing squalls across the city. Impossible to sleep, rain beating down on roofs. On this windy night, Rosa had already been up twice shutting various windows she’d forgotten were open. Rain tumbling in, wetting carpet, sure need cleaning up in the morning. Usually she would have closed windows or Jonathon would, double checking them all, due to his pedantic nature. Bloody coffee...

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“Shifting ” by Karen Lethlean

Submitted to Contest #137

Shifting An eerie evening; even now as sun withdrew its light from hills there seemed a whisper – Here comes night-time, beware! Sitting on the veranda, mesmerised by that view off into shadowed bush at the base of Eagle Hawk Mountain, were a hodge-podge group of hikers under my leadership. Closeness enforced, but still there, helped to overcome a sense of isolation dusk evoked. Some hikers were locals, but most were from overseas. They’d heard about majesty of this region and wanted to experience Eagle Hawk fully, in person, rather th...

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