August 2018

Popshot Magazine

The illustrated magazine of new writing

Popshot Magazine2 min read
Editorial
ISSUE 21 — DREAMAUTUMN 2018 Dream or dreams, dreamers or dreaming? We had an intense discussion at Popshot Towers about what this issue should be called. Such is life at a magazine. We agreed on dream, thinking it could also refer to an ideal situati
Popshot Magazine7 min read
We Missed Flying The Most
Alex finds a hot corner and sits with his back to the pepto-pink sky and sticky tarmac. Planes roar overhead as he scans the room for Maya, remembering the first dream of hers that he heard here. Maya isn’t coming, but the part of Alex that knows thi
Popshot Magazine1 min read
Four Walls
We build our kingdom out of markers and cardboard boxesuse leather couches as fortresses, ottomans as brick wallshide beneath blankets that smell like our mothers’ handscheck under dusty beds for iridescent ghosts, four-eyed monsters.We are tucked in
Popshot Magazine6 min read
The Straw Hat
I thought she was joking. But she stood there with the magazine article in one hand and a pen in another. Nothing in the waitress’s face said more than the words she spoke, so I autographed the page and thanked her. Later, I watched the traffic from
Popshot Magazine11 min read
Chosen
I sat in a clinic that reeked of bleach and paint, listening to everyone recount almost identical versions of the dream everyone was having at the time. I could sense the excitement in the room, the euphoria bordering on hysteria, but also an underto
Popshot Magazine7 min read
The Haunting Of The Right Side Of Thomas Duffy
Thomas Duffy was driving home from finally signing his divorce papers when a fox ran in front of his car. Later, Thomas would remember the animal’s headlight-brightened eyes, the last two stars in the universe after all the others had died. It was th
Popshot Magazine3 min read
Boats
Underneath the boat, Our Girl’s Shadow is kicking her legs. Up there, inside the boat, Her Boy is reading – it’s just a pamphlet that he has taken from the hotel, but Her Boy will not be disturbed. He is basking in the sun and he looks luxurious: a g
Popshot Magazine6 min read
Austin Heat
The window air conditioner in my studio apartment crapped out during a run of hundred-degree days in July. I’d been unemployed for months, and cash was non-existent to fix or replace the damned thing. Combing my hair raised a sweat, so I cycled betwe
Popshot Magazine2 min read
New World
When I stepped outside on Wednesday morning, I found the world had turned black and white. Well, that isn’t entirely true. It wasn’t all black and white. There was a sepia tint to the sky. It stretched overhead like a sheet of ancient parchment foxed
Popshot Magazine11 min read
The Brother Of The Man Who Found The Giant Squid
The giant squid, when finally it appeared before them, was a burnished gold. This was surprising. Surprising also was its size. Somehow it was both larger and smaller than they had expected. Small in the deep, deep sea: large suspended in front of th
Popshot Magazine2 min readFashion
On Reaching 45 The Poet Realises She Is Only 23
It happened quite by mistake, snipping a loose thread from the hem of my corset, the blade nicked my thigh and the tiny wound ran round my leg tin-opener fashion. Not a drop of blood spilt, but my flesh rippled to the ground like a silk stocking free
Popshot Magazine10 min read
Night Flying
Muriel shifted onto her knees and peered over the edge of the roof at the miniature figures streaming across the fairground. Her stomach flipped and she squeezed her eyes shut again. For the first time in months, she cried for her beautiful home – he
Popshot Magazine3 min read
Endnotes
6 – Lydia Ruffles is the author of The Taste of Blue Light (Hodder, 2017). Her second novel, Colour Me In (Hodder Children’s Books), is out on 9 August. 12 – Helen Rear is an English Literature and Creative Writing student at Bangor University. She i

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