Meanjin

The Finest New Writing in Australia

Your account

Sign in
  • In Print
  • Online Only
    • Latest Pieces
    • Reading Trails
    • What I’m Reading
  • Read
    • The Meanjin Papers
    • Poetry
    • Essays
    • Fiction
    • Memoir
    • The Meanjin Interviews
    • Experiments
    • State of the Nation
    • The Year In…
  • Books
    • Reviews
    • Australia in Three Books
    • What I’m Reading
  • Writers
    • Interviews
  • Buy
    • Subscribe
    • Where to buy
  • News
    • Announcements
    • Events
  • About
    • About Meanjin
    • First Peoples First
    • People
    • Editorial Advisory Panel
    • Copyright and Payment
    • Partners
    • Get Involved
    • Contact
    • Privacy
  • Search

I Dreamt of Sam Last Night

New fiction by Libby King

12 October 2017

I dreamt of Sam last night. His hair was still the colour of straw but longer than I’d ever seen it. He had a rough fringe at the front and it reached his shoulders at the back. I wonder if he looks like that now, it’s been years since I’ve seen him. The image was hazy, like a photo filter with a softening 70s colour scheme. He was leaning against the trunk of a gum tree and seemed sad, kind of down and out, and he was wearing the old kind of John Denver glasses he had when I first met him. I have a close up picture of him in those thick metal frames: he is blowing me a kiss, snowy Welsh mountains and his blue hatchback are in the background, his hair is puffed up by the wind and is floating around his face. I want that photo now; I want it on my wall; I want to find the square brown negative, take it to a photo shop and tell them to blow it up as big as they can because when I look at it I know we were happy. But only rockstars and poets hang photos of old lovers on their walls.

Embrace Australia’s finest writers

Meanjin is open again for subscriptions! Thank you all for your patience as we’ve undertaken the transfer of the journal to its new home.

The next edition of Meanjin will be available from December 2026. Information on the purchase of single editions – in print or ePub formats – will be available closer to time.

To stay in touch with our latest news, please sign up here.

Search Meanjin

Most Recent Edition

Search Meanjin

Site by Madeleine Egan

  • In Print
  • Online Only
    • Latest Pieces
    • Reading Trails
    • What I’m Reading
  • Read
    • The Meanjin Papers
    • Poetry
    • Essays
    • Fiction
    • Memoir
    • The Meanjin Interviews
    • Experiments
    • State of the Nation
    • The Year In…
  • Books
    • Reviews
    • Australia in Three Books
    • What I’m Reading
  • Writers
    • Interviews
  • Buy
    • Subscribe
    • Where to buy
  • News
    • Announcements
    • Events
  • About
    • About Meanjin
    • First Peoples First
    • People
    • Editorial Advisory Panel
    • Copyright and Payment
    • Partners
    • Get Involved
    • Contact
    • Privacy
  • Search