ISSUE NO. 22
MAY 2026

Creative

This section publishes creative contributions mostly from currently and formerly incarcerated people. It includes short-stories, poetry, creative nonfiction, art, and much more.

If you have something creative to submit to us, we would love to read it, or see it, and publish it in About Time – please write to us!

Latest

By Phillip

There’s irony, hypocrisy, fallacy, a vast ocean of distance to cross. The “saint”, the “sinner”, it’s lunacy, that the ignorant could save the lost.

ISSUE NO. 22
2 MIN READ
By Karie

I’m not belle of the ball, not the very least, but we have something in common, I’m in love with a beast. But the beast is not a person but a drug that I call meth, I’ve been talking to myself for hours, I’m running out of breath.

ISSUE NO. 22
1 MIN READ
By Dennis

Nostalgia is a gentle haze, a soft and fading, golden maze, where time itself begins to blur, and memory’s touch is sweet and pure.

ISSUE NO. 22
1 MIN READ

Previous Editions

ISSUE NO. 11
June 2025

My Name is Meth: A Poem of Truth

By Kelly Flanagan

I destroy homes, I tear families apart, take your children, and that’s just the start. I’m more costly than diamonds, more precious than gold, the sorrow I bring is a sight to behold.

3 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 11
June 2025

Broke My Heart

By Mahina

Being in jail has given me time to think, as I lay in my bed and slowly sink.

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 11
June 2025

Ode to Ashton – Now Eighteen

By Jacqui

My little boy has grown so strong, I can’t believe its been this long, since he raised his tiny head, and gazed at me in the hospital bed.

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 11
June 2025

My Brother Anthony

By Karie

Brain tumour, brain tumour, a darkness you can’t see, oh how I hate you, you took my brother away from me.

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 11
June 2025

Jesus DMC – Based on a True Story

By John

Rob (my cellie) and I were about to go to sleep one miserable cold night, and a mouse (Jesus DMC) died and went up to the pearly gates and knocked.

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 10
May 2025

You Were Warned

By Anastasia

If you turn to drugs instead, to silence the villains in your head. Or to minimise the self harm to your arm, without causing alarm.

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 10
May 2025

Journey in a Poem

By April

Three four walls to sit in. Three four thoughts to think in.

1 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 10
May 2025

A Beacon of Joy

By Denis

In every ripple, her essence I find, a memory cherished, sweetly entwined. Her smile, a memory, forever aglow, like creeks that swell, and never forego.

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 10
May 2025

Good Seed

By RM

Home sounds so sweet to the heart, if only shown from the very start. I only wish for my hands to be freed, don’t beat me up about my past. Coz I truly am a good seed.

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 10
May 2025

Mind Incarceration

By Red Dragon

There's demons in my mind, I'm struggling to think. Life's leaving me behind, as deeper, I sink.

2 MIN READ

Welcome to About Time

About Time is the national newspaper for Australian prisons and detention facilities

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