Somewhere Something is Burning E-Book

Alice Frecknall

• Herausgeber: Out-Spoken Press
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 31

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

An examination of solitude and absence, the poems within this collection grapple with the reality and taboo of loneliness pitted against an anxiety of connecting. Exploring human relationships, breakdown in communication, and silence – self-inflicted or otherwise – the poems give voice to the fears and experiences that shape us, and interrogate the ways in which we process and avoid. Frecknall's leaps of surreality, extreme empathy and vivid imagery make Somewhere Something is Burning a compelling joyride of a read.

Leseprobe

Published by Out-Spoken Press,

Unit 39, Containerville

1 Emma Street

London, E2 9FP

All rights reserved

© Alice Frecknall

The rights of Alice Frecknall to be identified as the author of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library.

This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Out-Spoken Press.

First edition published 2021

ISBN: 978-1-8380211-9-1

ePub ISBN: 978-1-8384272-3-8

Typeset in Adobe Caslon

Design by Patricia Ferguson

Printed and bound by Print Resources

Out-Spoken Press is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and a grant from the Inclusive Indies Fund administered by Spread the Word.

for Hannah and Rebecca

Contents

Crustacean

Broken GPS

Paper

Best Kept Village

Blue

Attachment Theory

Moving Day

Fruit Picking

Real Estate

Holiday

Heat

I go to sleep on my side of the bed.

Last Winter I Ate You Whole

Love Letter

Tulips

Mother Married a Rock

Weekend Getaway

I Ask the Flowers

See Figure 1.

The Adult Authentication Centre

Please Note: single dinersmay have to share a table at busy times

Cyanosis

She is lying

Take These, They’re Falling!

Magic Trick

Easter Sunday

Plateau

Preface

Writing to You

Welcome to Departures

Stockpiling

The Vault

The Signs

Acknowledgements

Thanks

and passers-by see nothing but a little smoke

Vincent van Gogh

Crustacean

Google anatomy of a crab,

then what is a compound eye,

then define cephalothorax.

Think of a circle and a child

curled up at the centre, softly

fleshed, like a shell inside a shell.

Rampage the house, draw rings

around your mug, pen, mattress.

Undress, prod parts to check

they still move, scrawl just not this!

on a Post-it Note then circle

the words and stick it to the point

where, if you were ever opened

up, a heart would lie.

Broken GPS

I drop an anchor through the

floorboards thinking,

this must be the ocean; storm

the local football pitch

on team selection day, dressed

in all the right kit, waving

my arms and yelling, PICK ME,

PICK ME, PICK ME; glue

the emptied-out shells of a dozen

eggs back together and

pray to Customer Services that

more might come of them;

strap a kite to my ankles and

climb the cathedral; paint

myself head-to-toe, drive to

every gallery in the

county, a white plinth and a blurb

of tenuous links in the boot;

I learn balloon modelling from a

guy on the internet in

Mississippi; leave a sausage dog

and a wonky flower

stupidly close to a naked fame;

invite the neighbours

to a lineup of used cake wrappers,

a sign in Sharpie

on the back of an old chair, LAST

CHANCE, EVERYTHING

MUST GO; crawl into the airing

cupboard to fall asleep

among the stacks of clean towels,

the slow-to-ripen melons.

Paper

You said, I love you.

And I said, If you cut that right you’ll get paper snow.

And you said, I love you.