Victoria Williams: 0062

Today is about three-quarters done, but the sun is still up and so am I. Ever since I started working and bought a planner, life has arranged itself into segments of time, and I tick them off as they pass: two hours till the end of my shift, two days till my next day off, two weeks till my long weekend. Oh every month I live for my long weekend (last month: ice-cream sculpting. / this month: cigarette-rolling / next month: quitting smoking). But all this time ticking, and I’d be horrified if I didn’t know, if I didn’t believe, if I hadn’t been told – that all the years a person spends on minimum wage in a lifetime add up to the years they are allotted in the afterlife, before of course you’re exiled and return to mortal form for another round. Actually it’s a complicated system of mathematics that only a chosen few will ever know: but in essence, the more money you have, the less time you need in Nirvana anyway. So say the priests of the chapel installed in the break room.

Shower

Who gives the shower head?

Still Worlds by Gary Cummiskey

Linda Stenman on Romancing the Dead

Romancing the Dead (Tearoom Books, 2009) is a short collection of prose poems. The poems are beautiful, provoking and sometimes shocking. All of them are good and some are very good.

To read Gary Cummiskey is a special experience that shouldn’t be missed! My personal favourite is the title story. And I really like the cover.

I say: ***(**)

Thank you Tearoom Books for the review copy.

First published on Linda Loves Books. Read it HERE.

Max Moodley: 0018

Victoria Williams: 0061

Well yes, there probably is a grain of truth to what you’ve heard. Jacques has finally got The Buckeridge afloat and it’s out in international waters right now. There are two stories going around – one: that he’s creating a floating refuge for the hopeless; two: that he’s going to be searching for the melancholic painterfish. So I called him up and he says he doesn’t see why they shouldn’t both be true.

When my fiancé left me, I cut off my ring finger and told everyone it was because I’d never be needing it again – so Jacques has reserved me a cabin. And for those of you who are interested, in order to get on board you too need to prove that you’re incapable of living on land.

Placard

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