These three little stories were first published in Leon Literary. https://leonliteraryreview.com/eirene-gentle-madelaine/
A little god on a cold morning, dreaming
A tiny bubble first published in Ink in Thirds, March 2025.
Behind the story is another story
https://buttondown.com/EireneEleni/archive/a-writers-dream-is-to-publish
Witnessing descent into suffering is one thing, seeing the joy of those unleashing it, wittingly or unwittingly, is another level of dystopia. I originally called this first story Lamentation because that’s how it felt to me. But I couldn’t get the question out of my mind. How do they sing?
Flower tongue
https://inksweatandtears.co.uk/eirene-gentle
Daffodils hate being shoved in corners. When forced they emit a peculiar scent, part butter, part ulcer. I wear yellow shoes because I don’t like corners either but I am frequently left in them, and so I exude a peculiar smell. You sense it even from outside and I feel you hesitate and turn away.
How do they Sing and Tornado has the last dance
The calls of their last days and hours reverberate endlessly through the buildings and trees, carried on the wings of any buzzing thing that survives the heat. I am sometimes beak and sometimes claw, sometimes two legs like the fallen
Multiple choice for eventful times
Return of the innocent
How to be a better banshee
Violet
No one warned me of this thirst. Your throat bulges like a baby bird, my chin is streaked red and there’s no one to feed us.
https://www.roifaineantpress.com/post/because-we-don-t-know-how-to-lose-violet-by-eirene-gentle
Because we don’t know how to lose
Because we bend. Like trees. Flow like rivers, know a whole vocabulary of smiles, such range of choice flight freeze and fawn because we don’t. Know how to lose.
https://www.roifaineantpress.com/post/because-we-don-t-know-how-to-lose-violet-by-eirene-gentle