Tony Steven Williams

Rephasing

Clare reached the northern end of the plateau, just down the road from her childhood home, a world she hadn’t explored for decades. Gentle light from a cloud-filtered sun softened the fresh-leafed landscape, softened her despondent mood. She strolled along a familiar track between limestone rocks overlooking the shrubbery like Easter Island statues. Soon, she found one with a dark rectangular shadow at its base, which she knew led to a cell-shaped cave.

behind
that tangled cobweb
her inner child

When she was young, it was not a cell to her. She stored food in the natural shelves at its rear: cans of baked beans, peaches; packets of candy rings, gummy snakes, bubble gum, nut mixtures … any food that would last till her next occasional feast washed down with cordial. When the light was right, using nails, she hung dried grass and flowers onto the walls in decorative designs, and with coloured chalk drew her family and their house, ships at sea, rainbows, butterflies, and blossoms. There was a comfortable rock at the entrance where she would sit, imagining this to be her retreat, her place to dream of being a champion athlete, a stunning actress, a famous singer, a super model…

herringbone sky
a sign
for me to branch out

Clare smiled. Her current position of legal assistant for a law firm didn’t quite match those desires of her girlhood, but it was so nostalgic looking back. She turned on her phone flashlight and entered the cave, needing to dip her head. Of course, she reflected, I was a real shortie back then. The rear wall was mere moss and lichen now, a mustiness to the air, and no trace of her decorations and drawings. There was, though, a thin, relatively dry layer of debris on her rock throne, which she swept off with a twig. Sitting once again, she gazed out into the wilderness, breathed deeply, pushed back in her mind, way back. At last, a stir of magic returned. She began to wish again … for a new true love, a promotion, a new true love to take over from the slimeball, a better world, a new true love…

full moon to new moon
still the same moon
decluttering

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About the Author

Tony Steven Williams is a poet and short-fiction author from Canberra, Australia. He writes across many formats and genres, but in all his work the environment and the human condition are very important to him. His two published collections are Sun and Moon, Light and Dark (Ginninderra Press, 2018) and Reimmersion (Ginninderra Press, 2023).

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