Torsade Literary Space Mercy (poem)
Mercy You might be the bitter pith Your green unripe skin rasped away Your head shaped like a human skull Bone-colored, soft as a sponge and impressible Eating awkward lunches An object at the table A centerpiece blocking the view All eyes track and scatter delineating the dot dot dot of […]
My Blog Week: April 4 to April 10
All the Latest from Torsade! A Word on the Week Comfort and Convenience When we think about Amazon, we should think about retailing itself, what Amazon does and what it doesn’t do. Since the 21st […]
Eight: Honesty (poem)
Honesty Honesty become a tool of abuse Your hands pumping frankness up your neck-strings, mottling your frozen features with lifelike mantling, roseating from your mammoth pores Soon As, from your salesman’s case you pull nothing Saleable to the present state But bandy, as a bandwidth manipulator Your loutish telling of your […]
Hammersmith: A Daughter’s Sense of Duty (chapter twelve)
Hammersmith Chapter Twelve A Daughter’s Sense of Duty Her father hadn’t seen the host of faults communicated by his offhand errand, the one he had promised Mossbunker he would do himself. “Stage name, that’s the phrase you want. Ask her if it’s one.” Minnie Leybourne, Mossbunker the patriot would […]
Mathilde Alanic: Shine! (part thirty-eight)
Mathilde Alanic Shine! (part thirty-eight) Once in her room, Annie began to undress. Then, suddenly exhausted, lacking courage or strength, she threw herself onto a chair, leaned against the marble of her dressing table, and remained in a state of numbness, her forehead […]
A Small Exchange (poem)
A Small Exchange A small exchange between the gutter and the feet Wet hosiery and someone letting off corrosive mirth And so having blocks to go She felt uncondoled I mourn with you among strangers Waiting for a split head to hiss out the steam That boils it The curiosity of […]
Marjorie Bowen: The Sword Decides! (part seventeen)
Marjorie Bowen The Sword Decides! (part seventeen) The winds that round Mount Ida blow At his commands were still; The wingèd gods all circled low Round that dim Thracian hill. Then, ever blue the tender sky, And ever green the field; Mars laid his […]
The Totem-Maker: Lore and Lessons (part five)
The Totem-Maker Chapter Nine Lore and Lessons (part five) The sickness touched all who had been near the stones, all who had borne them in baskets, all who had bent their faces close to admire what had seemed only loveliness. The three artisans, their servants and their apprentices, were […]
My Blog Week: March 28 to April 3
All the Latest from Torsade! A Word on the Week Drinking Water Thinking, about a year ago, of New Year’s resolutions, and thinking of the environment, I was ready to stop buying bottled water. To […]
Collared (poem)
Collared How did he become the man who barked like a dog? Immersed in the grit and manure and rot of his role Tackled by a brave few hitherto hidden A meeting hastily convened in a garret On hands and knees in mudcaked trousers He shelters like a cur behind the […]