January 2011
“Welly, welly, welly, welly, welly, welly, well. To what do I owe the extreme...”
– Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange
The Straightforward Mermaid by Matthea Harvey
The straightforward mermaid starts every sentence with “Look … ” This comes from being raised in a sea full of hooks. She wants to get points 1, 2, and 3 across, doesn’t want to disappear like a river into the ocean. When she’s feeling despairing, she goes to eddies at the mouth of the river and tries to comb the water apart with her fingers. The straightforward mermaid has already said to...
Richard Siken (Crush)
The blond boy in the red trunks is holding your head underwater because he is trying to kill you, and you deserve it, you do, and you know this, and you are ready to die in this swimming pool because you wanted to touch his hands and lips and this means your life is over anyway. You’re in eighth grade. You know these things. You know how to ride a dirt bike, and you know how to do long...
“We laugh & it pits the world against us.”
– Richard Siken
“Love Is a Road and a River”
– Sasha Fletcher
“One of these days marching bands will fill the streets & they will be far...”
– Sasha Fletcher, When All Our Days Are Numbered
“He is ugly and sad… but he is all love.”
– Gabriel García Márquez - Love in the Time of Cholera
