When it was Good
JR Polkinghorne
28/09/2024
Content warning: themes of family violence
Image description: a black shadow with red eyes is curled around a purple shadow and pink shadow in the shape of a person. There is one bright blue tear drop falling to the right of the image.
‘When it was good we would dress up as pirates, or fairies and you would do my makeup to look like yours. I loved the long black lines drawn on my eyes and the deep red painted on my lips. Together we danced, we sang, we laughed and it was good.’
Red Robot
Kerry O’Connor
28/09/2023
Image description: a tall brown tree with falling purple leaves stands in the foreground as a red glow shines from behind the tree on the right side of the image. The tree is surrounded by a blue-purple background.
‘Jacaranda trees still thrill me. The identity book I will never discard, and I haven’t yet reconciled my views on guns. I know that some red dust has escaped my soul and made its way into the box and I am content to leave it there, settled between the creases of papers and over the surfaces of photographs.’
How To Deal With Your Depression (A Guide For Me, By Me)
Edan Joan May
11/12/2022
Content warning: self-harm, grief and death
Image description: a monochromatic grey image with a desk, a journal, a cracked coffee cup, an open laptop and a wilted plant surrounded by crumpled pieces of paper. The only colour comes from three bright notes on the wall: a yellow one saying ‘Breathe’ in black, a green one saying ‘I am okay’ in black, and a pink one saying ‘Keep Smiling’.
‘Here’s how I try to make people understand me. I tell them stories and desperately hope that they see the cracks in-between the moments where I’m trying to get them to laugh.‘
After a straight death
Grace Hall
06/06/2022
Image description: purple waves swelling up against an orange sun and slightly darker orange sky.
‘We’re sitting on the shoreline watching the sets roll in. He’s trying to show me where the suck rock is – where the waves break on invisible reef. He doesn’t think I’ll get a feel for it unless we sit partially in the water. My surfboard has a swollen nose. A ding has let the water in. I count how many people are out. Forty-nine. It’s too many.’
Windows
Sharalyn Coon
11/02/2022
Image description: a dark blue background surrounds a lighter blue window that has open shutters and shows white and purple circles that look mystical.
‘Photographs are windows into the past that remind me of the people I know and the places I have been. I have placed those that make me smile on the mantle, where they sit like a row of sparkling teeth, and the rest are tucked away in the shadowy spaces of the spare room.’
Paper Road Magazine 