Haidee Kruger on Romancing the Dead

"...It’s just as well I waited before reading Gary Cummiskey’s new poetry chapbook, Romancing the Dead, published by Tearoom Books. Sure, there’s plenty of razorwire, but it’s not the razorwire that will get you. It’s the big, hollow, echoing melancholy below the jagged, surreal surface. Gary’s deadpan surrealism is December on the Highveld, with its blisters of hot tar and endlessly bleached afternoons that hide the sinkholes quietly opening up below.

(And I love the cover, with its austerely retronostalgic look. The design sensibility over at Tearoom Books is totally lovely.)"

First published on Messy Things With Words

Victoria Williams: 0031

Dear Mr. Lawrence
I've rewritten the parts,
that isn't a sword
This isn't a scabbard
This is a mouth
with soft pinky gums
It can shiver and swallow
and suck your sweet thumb
Dear little mummy's boy
I'll go on top
and soon you'll forget
you're the one with the cock.