Tyranny of distance

More from author

More from this edition

After three years in Australia

PoetryI take for granted going into movie theatres without checking for guns, or sitting as close to the exit as possible, assume now any big backpacks are just for smuggling...

My mother disliked the sea

PoetryMy mother disliked the sea after we arrived in Australia. She would say, ‘Four weeks on a ship. Waves. Waves. That’s all it was... And the horizon never...

FictionIt was always busy there in Palermo. During a snow shower I’d sit in the cafés, small corner net connections. Sometimes the weather was a little heavy – I’d kick my boots clean of ice at the entrance, umbrella heavy with sleet. The man you paid to use the internet would be singing in Farsi; a woman would speak in hushed tones in the cubicle. Sometimes not so hushed. Talking to her family on the other side of the world. Where maybe it was snowing, too. And together they could listen to each other. Together in the snow they could talk.