Archive - Benjamin Allen's Modern Tales

A Lizard With No Tail

The black mole growing in her head. The idea that the more birthdays you collect, the more likely life will hide behind a corner, stick a leg out and…

Jul 9, 2023 •

The Last Man on the Moon

The snow is coming down erasing the city. My red hat muffling the whole world. A yellow scarf over my mouth. I must look like a stamp on a parcel. Ready…

Jul 2, 2023 •

December 2022

Who's That on TV?

A woman with her hair dyed half blond half blood, she shuts the kitchen door and says, “They can hear us.” With one finger tapping her nose she says…

Dec 5, 2022 •

November 2022

Anything oily or creamy on my body makes me wanna rip my skin off. Even now I’m growing older with no moisturiser in my bathroom cabinet. I like my skin…

Nov 6, 2022 •

October 2022

A not so spooky Halloween story

Oct 31, 2022 •

Sometimes, your girlfriend comes out of the bathroom waving a wet pregnancy stick and shouting. Shouting that for someone who sucks at thrusting you…

Oct 26, 2022 •

August 2022

We are the last chance. The last opportunity to change our past. That sounds ambitious when you look around and everyone is still sucking their thumbs…

Aug 6, 2022 •

July 2022

Last Man on the Moon

The snow is coming down erasing the city. My red hat muffling the whole world. A yellow scarf over my mouth. I must look like a stamp on a parcel. Ready…

Jul 24, 2022 •

If this was ancient Rome, this would be a buried volcanic-ash death. Eveline and I. In our own little Pompeii. This could be how we died.

Jul 17, 2022 •

Number Twenty-Five, Vanilla Milkshake

Early morning, the world is always out of focus. Pumping in caffeine. Sip after sip. In a way, this is renewable energy. That will let you run for…

Jul 10, 2022 •

February 2022

Hello, Who’s This?

If we were friends when we were kids, you probably received one of those phone calls. The landline phone rang, you picked up and couldn’t hear a thing…

Feb 20, 2022 •

Give Me Vitamin C

The delivery guy will drop forty-seven oranges and twenty-five clementines by the front door. He’ll step back a few meters and I’ll drag everything…

Feb 16, 2022 •

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