Trigger Warning
PEOPLE OF A SENSITIVE NATURE ARE ADVISED THAT THE FOLLOWING EXTRACTS EXPLORE FAMILY DYSFUNCTION AND ABUSE ISSUES
Zero Gravity
Gayle J. Greenlea
Excerpt for 29 November, 2021
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Two continued
“You’re so predictable, Siobhan, calling yourself an artist. Art’s supposed to imitate life though, not the other way around. You turn your life into a pretzel trying to be me, re-inventing your life into mine. Now you’ve slept with Ryan.
“If I remember correctly, you were there, too. It’s not like I did anything behind your back.”
“Oh, didn’t you? You and Ryan orchestrated this. You had it all planned; all you needed me to do was show up. You were already taking off your clothes before anyone could say ‘threesome.’”
“I didn’t hear any objections. Far from it. Let’s see, would ‘gasping, sweaty, moaning’ be accurate descriptions by your journalistic standards?”
“I’d say virtually conscious was more like it. We’d all had too much to drink – never the best vantage point for choosing sexual liaisons.”
The waitress, replete with ear, nose and belly piercings and spiky blue hair, picked this inopportune moment to deliver the margarita. Siobhan ordered another gin and tonic. “You always make excuses. Everything is always somebody else’s fault.”
“I could say the same for you.” Hilary released the death-like grip on her margarita glass. Okay, let’s stop. This isn’t why I came.”
“Oh, you came all right.”
-Gayle J. Greenlea
YOU’RE THE DEAD TO ME
Fourth week -A Waning –
Day
I know who you are.
I know where you live, your home.
Get out of my head
-Paul Brookes
Bios And Links
-Gayle J. Greenlea
is an American-Australian poet and counselor for survivors of sexual and gender-related violence. Her poem, Wonderland”, received the Australian Poetry Prod Award in 2011. She shortlisted and longlisted for the Fish Poetry Prize in 2013, and debuted her first novel,
Zero Gravity, at the KGB Literary Bar in Manhattan in 2016. Her work has been published in
St. Julian Press, Rebelle Society, A Time to Speak, Headline Poetry and Press, The Wombwell Rainbow, Fevers of the Mind, Kalonopia and
The Australian Health Review.
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