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Life is cost, throwing good years after bad
Why make more of it, why shovel out bits of
Yourself to create a monument to all you haven’t done?

I have so many questions for my father
Do all ships rock like they are being tossed in waves?
Did you hold your breath when you land?
Are you not my father, Duke?
Shouldn’t I look into my face & see you
Winking back like the stars?

The seams of your waistcoat have snagged
On brush & cacti, leaving a trail
Of stories unwinding, voice swallowed.

If I planted my feet & called your name
Would a storm come churning through
The endless sky? Do spaceships sound
Like helicopters? Churning & sloped in hover?

Does it sound like a man afraid to say
His own name aloud
Afraid of what it will summon?



Lauren Parker is a writer and visual artist in Oakland, California. She has written for The Toast, The Racket, Xtra Magazine, Catapult, and Autostraddle. She’s the winner of the Summer of Love essay contest in The Daily Californian, the Vachel Lindsay poetry prize, and is the author of the forthcoming chapbook We Are Now the Thing in the Woods.
Current Issue
22 Apr 2024

We’d been on holiday at the Shoon Sea only three days when the incident occurred. Dr. Gar had been staying there a few months for medical research and had urged me and my friend Shooshooey to visit.
...
Tu enfiles longuement la chemise des murs,/ tout comme d’autres le font avec la chemise de la mort.
The little monster was not born like a human child, yelling with cold and terror as he left his mother’s womb. He had come to life little by little, on the high, three-legged bench. When his eyes had opened, they met the eyes of the broad-shouldered sculptor, watching them tenderly.
Le petit monstre n’était pas né comme un enfant des hommes, criant de froid et de terreur au sortir du ventre maternel. Il avait pris vie peu à peu, sur la haute selle à trois pieds, et quand ses yeux s’étaient ouverts, ils avaient rencontré ceux du sculpteur aux larges épaules, qui le regardaient tendrement.
We're delighted to welcome Nat Paterson to the blog, to tell us more about his translation of Léopold Chauveau's story 'The Little Monster'/ 'Le Petit Monstre', which appears in our April 2024 issue.
For a long time now you’ve put on the shirt of the walls,/just as others might put on a shroud.
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