Category: Issue 11 / 2020

New Year’s Eve Eve I’m not the only mammal living herethe question is  star achieverenduring theme I’ve swapped cheese for nutritional yeastnow if you could  friends with benefits moviedevelop the courage to ask her where is the cyclonewho is in the hammock  easy and natural conversationalisttake into the next world the banned Iranian director Jafar… Continue reading Emily Stewart

THREE CLIPPED CURTALS I The penances presented śpacious salutationsVersicolor Raghu, piebald inventor  League dismay ascetic austerities, virtuously shall opposeExcessive decrepitude, not reft a foeman’s HourDisquieted miseŕliness-unsated-hied; absention from behaviouŕ Three shall abstain from seven,Seven scanńed surprise; thou hermitage thou inćureth minikinRunty dialogue, these of obesiance outspread           Piddling infrastructure II Perfect ablution, attainable, connubial Soma-juiceFledged pŕeceptor, Brahmana, buttererRevered disposer… Continue reading aj carruthers

Spleen 1 January, pissed off with Sydney, pourssteaming torrents on the lesseesof Camperdown cemetery and mortal dumpson the tenants and landlords of selected suburbs. Tiles offer scant comfort to Minky,her failing back legs splayed out like a frog’sfor maximum chill; tiny Kafkas haunt the hot drains,squeal as they’re turned into ghosts by Raid. A siren… Continue reading Toby Fitch

On the death of Rupert Murdoch eviction returns in a state of damage—the aliveness of terrain even as it burns.time is a product of error / strange attractorsloosening the grip in pastiched alienisms—one depthless surface on anotherdepthless surface. the unloved characteristicgoes to extremes / to claim worlds beyond quest / ionpulled from background check /… Continue reading Louis Armand

red eyes, silver horses I have to leaveagainTonight, thoughSmuggling truffles out of you by the mouthfulI hold a fist inside my curveAn interrupted gesture ofgoodbyeOut dirt windows black sand might be inkbrushing into mangrovesK uses an old man handkerchiefbut manages to keep her coolA few Naproxens and a lie downI am too tired to remember… Continue reading Claire Albrecht

Rivers I could hear their voices long before I knew what they meant (Wrong.)boiling glue in corridors, goose feathers disinterred from snowsomehow still as white as butter. Apart from this, everythingopened like the prospect of a good mood, fish eggs easyin the dark inundation. The wide berth is given. But is it? No, No, No,… Continue reading Louis Klee

Rilke the young bend their knees to the floorthey love & love again in theirloneliness each time squanderingtheir whole nature & living ininexpressible fear for thefreedom of the other personor they love & love again intheir loneliness which compels theminto their own fear of freedomthe fear that waits & pushes themback & forth so that… Continue reading Judy Annear

Temporality Come on old kidney old string old greenYou’re not at the moment of conceptionFather withdrawing and mother too closeRemember colonisation raking it all inWith shit popup coffee for the tall shipsNo one could tell the difference thenEspecially not poor sailors from LancasterOr wherever fled from in the DordogneThat little phrase comes from the BibleThe… Continue reading Michael Farrell

SUM OF PARTS (answering the Proust Questionnaire via movie roles played by Judy Davis) Still I am content. I’ve seen you at last. And I am delighted to find you’re not a man at all. ★ It’s how I always feared it would happen. The devil doesn’t carry a gun, Welch. It carries fast food,… Continue reading Pascalle Burton

Parched 1 staring for hours at the wallwon’t change the worldbut the crack divergingfrom the window to doorwill attune you to a lifeon the banks of a driedout river where the pageis a tank filling with hoursof empty water 2 coughing phlegm into thekitchen sink the mindfalls back into the bodythat each day of workalmost… Continue reading Jake Goetz

DRIVER 0830 Agapanthus The death of the lily of the Nile:capsules filled with fine black seeds.Child shakes his guilty head; denialOf what it is the plant needs. Capsules filled with fine black seedsto be kept cool in sand ‘til sowingof what it is the plant needsif the plant is to continue growing. To be kept… Continue reading Dave Drayton

W/ the aim of poisoning the pure minds of the youth John says history surprises us less                than us our                        selves wellsunflowers shock me most   most or best infacthere esp          ecially sosince the war against sentiment gave memy glass back                             thatbag of beaten goldin time would be found filled & so      leader     o please tell   that long title… Continue reading Hao Guang Tse

Vocal fry A candlelight vigil but instead of Ecoya it’selectronic flickers attempting transmission acrossbeat up phone screens How “cowboy” was my Tinder bio for six monthsand every man with good sense messaged to askif I could ride him like a donkey yes / no While crossing a red light I toss a soft broken shellinto… Continue reading Vanessa Mei Crofskey

DAY 22 the pandemic between us Blackened trees are fallingone after another in northern California. Your chainsaw might be a spooncutting through dark chocolate cake. Where I am, roses confetti the ground—lavender, magenta, pink, white, yellow. It’s midday tomorrow in Marlborough and I’mreading your letter under the arms of a pine whose body is large… Continue reading Amy Leigh Wicks

Sugar Jars That summer even the dust was sticky // heat was so cheap // we could all afford it // us poor filled jars with heat // stacked it up in sheds // on the edge of the swamplands // heat pooling on the sides // vibrating the tin // harmonics blasting // from… Continue reading Ruby Solly

Echidna and a Drag Queen Named Pipi for Dan Taulapapa McMullin it’s all glitter scales     or lightshifting on a surface     over water     an island made ofphotonshow does one undo such acrylicswhen they become so attachednot just some faggot in thekitchen sweeping away the stains ofa dead god     Echidna dears Pipi to take herout               to a bar made of ancestors queererthan… Continue reading essa may ranapiri

Ode to the arsehole of the world El Cullo del Mundo, Wellington grasshoppers in the guacamolehere’s a toast to the Isle of Islaythat barman looks like Tom Waitsthe barmaid from Boliviaas tiny and as shining asa pimpernel is dancing withthe bearded cocktail maker six foot sixand growingwhile the manageressrifles through the till to find her… Continue reading Murray Edmond

with air frighters, technological bliss Curtain razor on the other sidecool on the insistence roaminglambs to the daughter      air brushrevocation salts I’m eatingsavouring my win tipstip tipliving in the lesslessair in echo scrivingsfocus on the singer’s trigonometry it’s also really here wordsreason hooch trees ardourfaster frill slowlaughter afternoonthe advent nary one boastnor one canyon to collectionsage… Continue reading Lisa Samuels

Supermarket 10pm The snack aisle strikes me as too peppy. AndI tripped on my own shoes trying to self-checkout too many apricots. Nina Simone on lowvolume’s really bumming me out. This year,I cried in your kitchen while you made crepes.I stole a tub of ricotta cheese. I was lateon purpose and I never did my… Continue reading Ellen Morgan Butler

a note a note folded and placed, straggly grassfarm stretches to the broad riverwith gold carp a maroon barnbones juthigh on the hill early summerblackbirds in the flame treedangling worms note gives directions to a treehutclimbfrom up there on sturdy bougha good sense of the farmfrom neighbour’s fence skyto far-flung harbourtreehut scrawled with writing aphorismstauntsyouthful… Continue reading Brett Cross