Joe O’Connor

Joined February 2023

82 stories

Bio

New Zealander

English teacher

Short stories and poems📚

Please be honest- I would love your constructive feedback, as it's the only way I'll get better. Would rather it was pointed out so I can improve!

Currently writing James The Wonderer

Achievements (9)

Stories (82)

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Call of the Child. Top Story - November 2025.
The notification popped up on my phone, like it does every Monday around mid-morning. "Your screen time was up 14% last week, for an average of 4 hours, 18 minutes per day."
By Joe O’Connor2 months ago in Humans
To the man up there
Dear Dad, Sometimes I look up and wonder if you're looking down at the same time. Would you wave? Are you?
By Joe O’Connor2 months ago in Poets
Aventine Hill. Top Story - November 2025.
"I can't see anything James. Like, nothing. It's literally black." "Pull your eye back a bit babe- you're probably too close." came the careful reply, launched up and over the white brick that separated them.
By Joe O’Connor2 months ago in Fiction
Sentry, now and always
This little boy peers up at me While I stand stiff, tall as a tree. He does not know why I am dark, How on this bridge I came to be.
By Joe O’Connor3 months ago in Poets
Sanctuary. Top Story - October 2025.
Slipping between shadows, he knew safety was close at hand. Just a little further, a little closer and he would... A cry went up instantly, ripping open the evening lull, and the clink of mail quickened, loudened, heading his way.
By Joe O’Connor3 months ago in Fiction
flowers of fate. Honorable Mention in The Sonnet of Shadows Challenge.
When days were young and full of life, to the forest would I go and often sit on logs of moss, eyes watchful and in wait
By Joe O’Connor3 months ago in Poets
A weary world
Look upon a weary world, and call it what you will I name it split, torn apart, and on the brink of broken brimmed with hatred, fearful now, replete with hearts unopen
By Joe O’Connor3 months ago in Poets
Snakes . Top Story - September 2025.
Lines of code trickled along the walls beside her, numbers and symbols dribbling like hieroglyphs in a never-ending stream of information.
By Joe O’Connor3 months ago in Critique
Bodies old
The world around me shrinks and stills And this ancient husk of mine does creak No more valiant stroke or daring feat
By Joe O’Connor4 months ago in Poets
At my feet
They were green before Then they dropped, like tired dreams Brown dust at my feet.
By Joe O’Connor4 months ago in Poets
Fate
Cling to your branch, gold. Try philosophise free will. Autumn always wins.
By Joe O’Connor4 months ago in Poets
The silent struggle
She lies crumpled on the couch, silent and still. Messy hair, eyes closed, curled into herself as if for protection. Her phone on Do Not Disturb, the door locked, and the lights down low.
By Joe O’Connor5 months ago in Critique