Article

lethe

she liked to make me dance / led me soapy / to the balcony / i grew up thankful, violet-haired

Creative
A child with long purple hair leans against a tree, holding a teddy bear, surrounded by stars.

after gingerbronson’s 1994.

 

i should have been named katrina or
irene or sandy because i move like a hurricane
like one big black hole like a
paper shredder
i grew up in high places,
behind fans and walk-in wardrobes and liminal spaces, trading
stickers in classrooms i grew up catching
boys and heat rashes
spent nine learning jokes,
ten to twenty dodging the punchline
grew up old, different walls every year but the same peeling paint
building a home in my mind with edges
and stuffed toys, i
grew up psychopath and silver-tongued
and best friends with the dark
twisting both lips up
she liked to make me dance
led me soapy
to the balcony
i grew up thankful, violet-haired
and lover, making tin-can telephones
asleep on poolside chairs
grew up chamaeleon, moon-like, smiling sideways,
grew up believing  in mermaids and god, still believe in 1.
i grew up in a garden city fire
and savage, grew up
placating, grew up
like fireworks like swaddled
grenades like a child forgetting
to breathe,
am 1 still
think the world is beautiful.

 
Farrago's magazine cover - Edition Two 2023

EDITION SIX 'PHANTASMAGORIA' AVAILABLE NOW!

The harpsichords sound like skeletons. The wings of butterflies open and close like lungs. The trees are murdered for pianos. The dust in the abandoned antique store glows gently, as if made from the powdered skulls of fairies and changelings. Welcome to the weird and wonky world of Edition Six, Phantasmagoria. We bid you to tread carefully...

Read online