TMO is proud to publish original works of fiction and poetry as part of its literary coverage. If you’d like your work to appear in TMO magazine, please check our submissions page for details.
HILL 880 (Irish UN position South Lebanon) Tonight, senses steeled against the black sky, we listen for the warring shadows. The storm is almost upon us. Bursts of coloured tracer attack the hill, bouncing over lost horizons. Phosphorous lights explode, illuminating battered landscapes of death. Below the thunder they cower in the dancing veil […]
Wing beats of a wild duck Startled by my unlit prescence Drum into my consciousness A moment framed in time. I am again before a dark city lake On a winter’s evening Behind me the half-heard sound Of Hamburg’s traffic. Before me an emptiness of water And space, unfilled by you.
Fred Astaire When I was nineteen I laughed At what I heard people call your “Art”. Art! Like Joyce or Jean Paul Sarte? No. I had you firmly in a bracket. Somewhere between Elvis Presley And Bob Cratchet. But when I was thirty-eight And it was a wet Sunday afternoon And the pubs were shut. […]
TREAD SOFTLY It’s raining, always is, that sticky hazy rain that gets down your neck, behind your ears and saturates your face, your hair as soon as you step from the vehicle even though the uniform is multilayered, your boots get soggy straight away and the pistol grip on the rifle resting in your arms […]
Sarah was late, but that wasn’t her fault, that was the fault of the British rail system. Still, she could sense the anger in the way he held the steering wheel, in the way he changed gears. She was learning to drive too, it would make getting to jobs like this much easier. The road […]
KEEPER OF THE GROOVES For P.McL. It crept up out of the blue Long after I first listened To the affable bluff and ardour That wafted in spurts on air. An above-par package Between hand-picked tracks. Whatever. Then we were introduced In a not-as-we-know-it Academy Assembled to watch a retro Androgynous doll or two Dance […]
SKELETON HEAD Kosovo minefields Out there in the black field a metal skeleton with a helmet on its head studies me – anticipates my every step, tallies my birthdays. Its grave is tracked with stakes like candles on a cake corralled by barbed-wire lace and yellow tape, waiting for the balloon to go up. […]
Just Another False Alarm When the Mayan Long Count Calendar Dating centuries beetles to a close, Rumours run rife over earth That the end of the world is upon us. Apocalyptic forecasts spring up, old hat; Nostradamus freely dangled his doomsdays, And lesser renowned local seers year after year Deign to persuade with revelations of […]
The Tide Silver bodies float on the surface driftwood- reflecting sun. Soldiers fish with hand grenades as shadow birds cluster flying on white sands under water. I stand on the feet of my shadow arms outstretched – resting on a still sea, bearing no weapons, the tide is undecided. Identity disks hang from […]
One More Day 1. In the first album I am beautiful. My eyes dance. Instead of hanging, my hair whooshes. T-shirts hug my torso. I can’t face her, that woman with my name. Her clothes no longer fit. They cringe at my touch. The blouses rustle: only a whisper of femininity left. There’s a […]
