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Content Warning: allusions to self-harm
Simon Alderwick – how we must live in a castle
when i start a new life,
i learn to walk
so i can search the kitchen.
a secret in a drawer,
blood under the floorboards.
observe before you speak:
who’s in charge of what?
who to destroy before you
can sit at the head of the table?
sharpen a pencil. there’s no paper;
do you write on the walls
or carve up your long sleeves?
never forget: this house
is not the world. nothing
& no one in it will keep,
unlike the sky, unlike the green.
if you must tell time, study weather
& the seasons. grow tall, but don’t lose
heart. check your height daily. feed
yourself sunshine. go outside
& tilt towards the rain.
Simon Alderwick lives in Oxford. His pamphlet, ways to say we're not alone, is available through Broken Sleep Books.
Photograph: Maple Street Haunt by C. V. Tibbett
C. V. Tibbett is a writer, editor, and artist living in Dogtown, Arkansas. A lover of horror, nature, and folk tales, their wide range of curiosities keeps them hungry to create. C. V. is focused fiercely on a radical reframing of modern society, pushing a new and revived return to our primal roots. Cofounder of The Circus, and creator of Arkansas zine LYME ZEST. Find them on insta @xo_cvt. Endless love to B & kitty Sasha.
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