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Feature Artist:Jack Ferguson

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NON-FICTIONThe beauty in the burning: the paradox of flag desecretion

Temple Run, for your life!

Manufacturing a Mircale: cars, cash and finding a cure

Cash for scrap cuture: the hipster effect

SOPA, PIPA, WTF?!-A

An ode to btjunkie

So you want to start an indie band?

FICTIONNine (9) Dark Theatres

A short account of a man who realised his story by telling those of others

Wednesday Roads

Sleeping in on weekdays

Jagged edge

A poem shorter than it’s title: subtitle included

Burden and Pride: not a story

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R. Whalan

S. Haas

J. Mire

K. Lispen

N. Weaver

C. Morteson

H. Hipster

R. Whalan

A. Patten

J. Rister

J. Elliott

S. Barnes

R. Whalan

M. Pearsons

T. McCammon

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Recently, I typed ‘Google’ into the search bar of ‘Google’. It was at this point I realised my virtual world had become greater than my reality.

Everyday I read scores of articles, opinions and comments online. I take in dozens of graphics, designs and creations. I may share, store or re-post them but I don’t touch them and they don’t project into my true reality.

Reality needs our help.

Everyday we are bombarded with catchcries like; “The Sale Ends Tomorrow!”, “Limited Time Only!”, “Every-thing Must Go!” - words that resoundingly create a finite society of consumption and disposal - and in reality, places pressure on consumers to buy in to the idea that our very existence is a mere flash in the pan.

As we continue to further embed in the virtual world that it becomes more imperative to tangibly hold what we create.

And as we age, it becomes clear that reality continues regardless of our own existence. However, this is not to say that the reality in which we exist cannot be varied. The collaboration of our ideas and projections will dictate our own reality.

We conduct our experience through discourse and the content, which we choose to consume. The only places in which these meanings find origins are in each of our minds.

And although our societal foundations become tethered, our resources expand. Individuals do not simply absorb knowledge or meaning but instead create it. That is, people must construct meaning and in turn create their own existence.

As we see through the lens of our own perceptions we begin to understand that what it is that we purposely absorb from around us is to our own discretion.

Leonard Cohen once wrote, “After listening to Mozart…I would always/ carry a piano/ up and down/ Mt. Baldy”.

We should all have a Mozart. And we should all feel like we want to carry a piano up and down Mt. Baldy. If our lives do not make us wish to carry a piano then we should not be satisfied. We should find what it is that makes us want to move the piano. We should all move pianos.

And with that sentiment exists the Adelaide Reader. It is a forum of ideas. It is designed to consider what exists directly around us. Our perceptions may be different but are nonetheless relevant. We should criticise, analyse and share the way in which we see it.

We all construct our own visions of reality and perceive the world in mysterious ways. Let us dictate our own terms of reality and existence.

First Thoughts.

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Non-fiction

Brad Doyle: “they make me sick. we need tough-er laws on aborigional crime.”

Leigh Branch: “I know a solution against the people who burned our flag.... It’s called a ‘final’ solution.”

David Graham: “Does aus have anymore flags or was that the last one.”

Sunday, 29 January 2012, Just Try Burning the Australian Flag, We Dare You Facebook page.

On Australia Day, protesters engaged in the desecration of the Australian flag. It’s burning singed through their likely Chinese manifesta-tion and through the hearts of many Australians.

A 15-year-old Indigenous Australian girl set light to the nation’s flag amidst protests on a multiplicity of Indigenous issues.

Whilst the undercurrent of racism boils to the surface again on fires of desecration, the discus-sion of what is a largely symbolic gesture be-comes further lost.

Burning the flag in Australia is not illegal.

No crime was committed.

Distasteful? Perhaps. Eye-catching? Yes.

The very nature of the unrest provoked by the actions of a young girl, perhaps not aware of the very symbolism behind it, has captured the black and white minds of Australians.

“For some little pricks to get there and stomp on our flag and set fire to it - there should be laws against it… There should be laws against burn-ing the Territory flag as well”, said Northern Ter-ritory Youth Minister Rob Knight.

And he’s not the first.

Politicians have repeatedly attempted to amend the Flags Act 1953 (Cth) so as to ban the burning of flags, both Australian and foreign.

In fact, the last attempt was in the form of the Protection of Australian Flags (Desecration of the Flag) Bill 2003.

Trish Draper former MP and South Australian member for Makin brought the Bill to parlia-ment and believed that banning flag desecration would not undermine freedom of expression.

“…you can protest without burning our flag, you can speak your mind without desecrating our

The beauty in the burning: the paradox of flag desecrationRoscoe Whalan

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The idea that other means are available to protest fundamentally rejects the notion of complete freedom of speech.

In the US, Justice Brennan expounded this very catch-22 in the governing case on First Amend-ment rights (Texas v Johnson): that government could not prohibit the expression of an idea sim-ply because it was offensive or disagreeable.

“To conclude that the government may permit designated symbols to be used to communicate only a limited set of messages would be to enter territory having no discernible or defensible boundaries”, said Brennan.

Conversely, Chief Justice Rehnquist disagreed stating that, “the flag is not simply another “idea” or “point of view” competing for recognition in the marketplace of ideas. Millions and millions of Americans regard it with an almost mystical reverence regardless of what sort of social, politi-cal, or philosophical beliefs they may have”.

national symbol and you can criticise the system without humiliating the people”, Draper said.

The Act would have provided that a person who desecrates or otherwise dishonours the Austral-ian National Flag or an Australian Ensign or without lawful authority, burns, mutilates or otherwise destroys the Australian National Flag or an Australian Ensign would be guilty of an offence.

And so, whilst flag desecration remains a crimi-nal offence in Austria, China, Croatia, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, the Philippines, Portugal, Romania, Serbia and Turkey why does it remain legal in Australia?

The Paradox

But herein lies the paradox- for so long as the flag exists as a semiotic vision of what Austral-ians uphold as basic rights and principles a ban would directly contradict that message.

Indeed, Brennan stated that “we do not conse-crate the flag by punishing its desecration, for in doing so we dilute the freedom that this cher-ished emblem represents”.

The Symbol

How then can the representation of a nation be so gravely received? A flag exists as a symbol of the nation and not as the nation itself.

However, routinely flags have been drenched in patriotism and both intentionally as an ag-gressive symbol in conflict and unintentionally through representations from citizens.

Subsequently, the almost religious symbolism of the flag is feverously defended and is laced with a higher moral obligation both for government and the people.

Therefore, how we see flag burning through our media is engrained with a deep sense of moral panic and a consequent retaliation that is often suffocated in racist undertones.

Politically and professionally, to condone flag burning on the basis of freedom of speech would be suicidal.

As the media feeds shorter sound bites of the events that occur around us, justification and validation become lost.

The bullets of treachery flash around our politi-cians who duck for political cover instead of dropping a bomb of social policy change.

Semiotics suggests that the flag is not a thing, rather a representation of something else.

Through our interactions with one another, as well as through our own projections, meanings are constructed, cultivated and manipulated.

Marx suggested that behind the construction

of meanings behind symbols are political and economic imperatives that the wider community comes to accept.

Most simply, the Australian flag is a symbol of patriotism. However, at a deeper construction it is a notion of sacred nationalism – so much so that flag desecration is likened to iconoclasm.

And if our flag is merely a symbol, then how should it manifest itself into reality?

Were flag desecration illegal, should I be held re-sponsible for an offence if I email photos of a flag to somebody else who then subsequently burns the photographs?

Should we turn to keeping our disposable ‘Made in China’ plates and serviettes from Australia Day so as to avoid desecration? Or at the very least recycle them?

Should we ensure that, like any sacred flag, our Australia flag t-shirts don’t touch the ground beneath us?

With websites such as Flag Burning World giving us the opportunity to virtually burn flags (Aus-tralia currently burnt 133,229 times) then where does the concept of desecration begin and end?The essence being a flag cannot be burnt.

Hendrick Hertzberg said, “It can’t be done. A flag, yes. The flag, no…A flag, any particular flag, is merely a copy. You can no more destroy the flag by burning a flag than you can destroy the Constitution by burning a copy of the Constitu-tion”.

And therein lie the answer – the true existence and meaning of the flag is intangible and there-fore untouchable.

As the flag flies high above buildings and hangs on walls, and sometimes, burns like ash into obscurity, so too will the calls for laws on flag

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burning.

Mark Twain once said that, “It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakable things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to exer-cise either of them”.

However, the more troubling notion that will remain is not a symbol or a representation made by the actions of flag burning, but instead, the actions and beliefs of the racist bigots that hide beneath calm and behind their keyboards.

Ironically, a notion the flag far from represents.

The 239 likes for the Just Try Burning the Australian Flag, We Dare You Facebook page aroused even the most repulsive racist. Perhaps the unpatriotic acts on Australia Day were neces-

sary to stir the true unpatriotic minds of the armchair racist.

Perhaps the real message that we should be shocked at and label as unpatriotic, shameful and disgusting are the words of those who called out the flag burning in the first place:

Daniel Zrim: i wish i was part of the fleet that first came to australia and killed abo’s. i would have eradicated them all then and there.

Jillane Taylor: Bahaha daniel zrim doesn’t sound like a name that would have been on the first fleet

Burn.

The number one action game, which provides moments of escapism from our own existence, may not be so different to our own lives.

With a 4.5 out of 5 star rating over 29,471 reviews there must be some bond between Temple Run and our exist-ence.

Played from the point-of-view of the protagonist, who resembles Indiana Jones, the hero (or potentially villain as it is unknown if the cursed golden idol was his to begin with) must escape the wrath of demon-monkey-guardians and manoeuvre through each obstacle that he faces.

At first play, this 3D adventure through the narrow halls of the temple appeared far from anything I myself experi-enced in my mundane middle-class life.

However, over time, it became abundantly clear that this was, in fact, an extremely meta-experience, as I found my own life being played out on my 3.5 inch screen.

Like our protagonist, I have no idea how I got to where I am now in life. Regardless, I am running. There is shit go-ing down around me and it seems fairly unrelenting.

The insatiable desire to collect ‘coins’ along the way, de-spite what I really want to do, represents our own tensions in society as we try to balance dreams alongside the bitter existence of ‘earning a living’.

When I ‘die’ in Temple Run, I have the opportunity to ‘spend’ the ‘coins’ I collected before dying. This is a sick representation behind the true meaning of retail therapy.

Sure, I died, but I will make myself better by ‘buying things’. Now, I have improved my ‘invisibility’ I will be a fiercer member of the human race, I will be a real ‘catch’.

Temple Run, for your life!Sam Haas

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Soon though, I realise that my improved ‘invisibility’ is not enough and invest in ‘increasing my boost’, ‘raising the value of the coins’ and becoming more ‘invisible’.

No matter how much I invest in these skills, I never seem to escape this horrible endless race that I find myself in.

Soon, it becomes clear that, although my abilities are maxed out I will never be good enough for this life.

My only hope is to become someone else.

I need to ‘upgrade’ myself and become Barry Bones, ‘a city cop with an attitude’, or perhaps become Montana Smith, ‘the second greatest explorer ever’.

And although I feel ‘more successful’ and I’m ‘achieving’ more as an individual, the cost of sustaining this ‘ability’ and ‘getting better’ is so much harder.

Then I realise, as I exit through the opaque mouth of the temple - so that I can never quite understand how I got here - that either side of me, of this narrow path, are the exotic surrounds of this mysterious world.

Not once, as I thrust myself with all my efforts through this crazy universe, did I consider what else was around me.

Not once, did I notice the ornate pillars of gold.

Not once, did I realise the trees that stood proudly in the marshy swamp.

And for the first time, I realised the beauty of the Temple Run world.

And I accepted that I would never ‘beat’ the world itself, but merely find my own ‘niche’ and be ‘a part of ’ some-thing bigger.

So I uploaded my high score to Twitter and let the haters hate.

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The car manufacturing industry represents a proud Australian exporting tradition.

Approximately 250,000 jobs depend on the au-tomotive components and other related industry in the country.

However, this industry remains propped up on some $750 million worth of government subsi-dies, an initiative unlikely to end anytime soon.

Former UK Prime Minister and the Mother of Free Markets, Margaret Thatcher once said, “yes, the medicine is harsh, but the patient requires it in order to live. Should we withhold the medi-cine?”

Holden’s manufacturing plant in Elizabeth re-cently announced the redundancy of 100 casual jobs.

Maybe the immune system cannot take much more.

If these job cuts weren’t insult enough, it falls after the Government announced plans to medi-cate Holden’s manufacturing in South Australia to the tune of approximately $200 million.

That’s a whole lot of drugs.

Manufacturing in Australia is sick. The pain can be numbed, but eventually it will become im-mune to the remedy.

Holden will continue manufacturing at the Eliza-beth plant until 2016.

And it appears likely that it will continue to promise financial support for the health of the national economy for years to come.

But how long will the government continue to drive an industry that is no longer road-worthy?

The Symbol

The car manufacturing industry has always been the jewel in the crown of primary production in Australia.

However, the power of the car and its status is fading. The symbol is losing its power.

For years primary production in Australia has represented what the people can create and give to the world.

But the car industry has suffered from numerous symptoms of illness over the past years includ-ing, but not limited to; over capacity, tax pres-sures, hyper competition and peak oil and fuel prices.

But deep down the true glory of the manufactur-ing industry is the jobs in which it creates.

The production line illustrates the very notion of the Australian dream; hard, honest work and success.

But the power of the car to move us is dwindling. The romance with vehicles is wearing thin.

Manufacturing a Miracle: cars, cash and finding a cure

Justin Mire

Tried Treatment

Politicians will not reject car manufacturing as a way of the future in this country on the basis of the thousands of blue-collar votes it would lose.

To announce that the jobs that people have worked, sometimes for all of their lives, are not part of the plan even though the plan could make Australia overall, more financial, would be most unwise politically.

Fundamentally, however manufacturers are seek-ing the cheapest way of making their product.

And although manufacturing may complain of a stomach-ache, maybe it’s just taking a sick-day?

For an industry that continually wants to be wrapped up in cotton wool - maybe its they who are pulling the wool over the Government’s eyes.

So long as they are receiving handouts from the Government to cover the increase prices of manufacturing in the developed world, then they stay.

However, when the cash stops flowing, they eas-ily pack up and take their industry elsewhere.

The key advantage overseas manufacturers have are the competitive labour costs.

In world terms, Australia has the best working conditions thanks to high union membership and a federally driven industrial relations sys-tem.

Australia’s lowest paid workers have a total mini-mum wage of $589.30.

However, the Chinese wages and salaries are extremely low – the fortnightly salary levels for general production workers range from less than $40.00 to $120.00.

Technical staff don’t fair much better.

The Free Market

The free market is designed to produce a wide variety of goods and services to meet the con-

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sumer’s wants.

The free market system determines the winners and losers in each industry based on the de-mands of the consumer.

Of course, the inherent risk that an entrepreneur faces in the free market is that it may, in fact, fail.

But, the entrepreneur will continue amidst hopes that it will succeed.

The consumer will continue to exercise its dollar votes over industry so long as it has the freedom to do so.

The consumer will reject a product that it no longer covets - perhaps something the Govern-ment should consider.

The free market is a game of winners and losers. And for a very long time the car industry has been holding on.

But there’s not much left in the tank.

The federal government generally resists, as it should in free markets from throwing its money behind industries.

Governments don’t bet on winners – especially if they might lose.

We should feed the global economy with knowl-edge, services and information more so than ‘making things’.

Reinventing Manufacturing

The slow (or some would argue, speedy) decline of the Australian car manufacturing industry should no longer be band-aided amidst fear of reprisals.

Instead, it should be seen as an opportunity.

However people struggle to come to terms with an economy based on information that isn’t tan-gible like that of the manufacturing industry.

If these old industries falter, they create a void in the economy. The losers sink and although they may not be saved new technologies and indus-tries learn to swim.

We have already seen change in the economy take place with two of the world’s biggest com-pany brands, Google and Facebook only em-ploying 29,000 and 2,000 employees worldwide, respectively.

In the US old industry is being replaced by new industries, such as the production of advanced lithium-ion battery cells for hybrid and electric cars, in Michigan.

Previously the Mecca of Car Manufacturing, Michigan is moving on from its motoring past.

South Australia has already started to chase new directions in redefining the economy closer to home.

For example, the loses of Mitsubishi at Lonsdale and St Mary’s could have spelt the end of manu-facturing in South Australia but overall it has had virtually no impact in terms of employment growth in South Australia.

Now, the opening up of Olympic Dam and the Defence industry contracts have diversified the economy.

The United States expects advanced battery manufacturing will create 62,000 jobs over the next decade.

The car manufacturing industry should only be

supported if it truly gives back to the economy.

But it is losing touch with the times.

We’re seeing a wave of new technologies, in energy, biotechnology, batteries, where there has to be a closer integration between research, development, design, product definition and production.

Invest in new technologies - in new manufactur-ing industries.

On the backdrop of the Emissions Trading Scheme there are numerous opportunities for renewable energy manufacturing to take place in Australia as these new energies replace the old.

There is some synergy between the death of car manufacturing industry and the life being blown into carbon trading.

There is a new green economy available if the Government is willing to fund it.

There are industries that do not yet quite exist if the Government were willing to encourage it.

And ultimately, and most importantly, there are jobs.

As Thatcher once believed to give the medicine, now the Government must decide when the medicine should be taken away.

In the quest to downgrade from middle-class to lower middle-class, hipsters all over have ditched their cars for the more ‘hip’ bike.

Not only are cars out the door but so too are gears as we each try to ‘build’ the most primal of fixies.

Each dollar shamelessly spent on a ‘genuine’ leather seat is another dollar not spent on ‘rear reversing cameras’.

Each dollar spent on ‘skinny wheels’ is another dollar lost on ‘phat rims’.

Safety star ratings are out the window – the only star ratings hipsters care for now are via Pitch-fork review.

Each fixie that takes to the road is one less VT Commodore burning up our streets.

When will we see the pant leg rolled up (further) as a sign of an unpatriotic- manufacturing-hater and not of a cutting edge social demographic?

The time when cars become ‘retro’ can’t come quick enough for Australian manufacturers.

Cash for scrap culture: the hipster effectKate Lispen

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Recently the internet has been in…how can this be put directly in internet terms, ‘trending’.

Wikipedia blacked all of its pages, Megaupload and Megavideo were shut down and founders, including Kim Dotcom were arrested for copy-right infringement and internet piracy.

Not that we should be surprised that a man who legally changed his name to ‘Dotcom’ in 2005 should be a key figure in this 21st century virtual war.

However, as a direct counter to this, internet hacktivistists, Anonymous managed to temporar-ily cause pandemonium through a retaliation attack disabling websites including; the FBI, Universal Music Group, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

Some were brought down in a matter of minutes.

How has this virtual warfare, which is as fan-tastical as the ‘Star Wars’ agenda of the late 70s, escalated so quickly?

The World Wide Weapons

Meet SOPA and PIPA - the two big guns on team Censorship - short for Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect Intellectual Property Act, respec-

tively.

Presented to Congress in October 2011, SOPA would expand law enforcers powers to fight the trafficking of intellectual theft and counterfeit goods.

Largely unknown to the casual internet user worldwide, the bill was brought heavily into the public spotlight in late 2011 via virtual word-of-mouth and forewarning.

However, SOPA fizzled when US president, Barack Obama’s administration issued a state-ment indicating they would not support legisla-tion that would censor internet.

The Obama administration did however, encour-age, “all sides to work together to pass sound legislation [this year] that provides prosecutors and rights holders new legal tools to combat on-line piracy originating beyond U.S. borders while staying true to the principles outlined above in this response.”

Over 7,000 websites protested the changes, not only because the all-encompassing definitions in SOPA meant that highly-regarded websites, such as Wikipedia, Google and Youtube would fit under the proposed legislaion.

But web-sharers couldn’t rest long as soon as SOPA had been withdrawn from Congress, the

SOPA PIPAWTF?!-ANick Weaver

Open Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (OPEN) was proposed.

However, OPEN has been postponed to be drafted before being submitted to Congress.

On the other hand, PIPA is a re-submitted ver-sion of the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) bill which failed to pass in 2010.

PIPA is both similar and different to SOPA as although it aims to stem the online trafficking of counterfeit goods, it aims to give copyright holders and US law officials “extra tools” to stop the servers who provide counterfeit goods being downloaded in the US, but originate offshore.

The bill has been stuck in Congress for months and a vote on the bill will be postponed due to the massive aforementioned protests by those 7,000 plus websites and the petitions set up by online-citizens.

My Cyberspace ‘Unearthed’

So, you ask: “what does SOPA and PIPA mean for me?”

With the introduction of either of these bills, the likes of YouTube, Flickr and Vimeo would be removed as they often show other copyrighted music/ videos.

And the far-reaching powers that US law-enforc-ers would be granted have already been illustrat-ed through the arrests of Dotcom and associates in New Zealand last month.

Obviously, all illegal downloading would be removed.

Torrents, Limewire and anything that gives free access to counterfeit goods would be removed.

This, itself presents a good argument but is it re-ally worth it?

Sure, some major acts may miss out on money, but is missing a couple of million dollars due to illegal downloads really that upsetting when you’re worth several hundred?

What would happen to the abundance of bands trying to get their music exposed by posting it on the net, hoping for people to share and build their fame through word of mouth?

Countless bands have become the success that they are today, due to people downloading their music.

Initially, they attend their concerts when the band tours, buy copious amounts of merchan-dise, and likely a hard-copy of the initial down-loaded music later.

The Untimeliness of Change

This all comes at a time where over 80% of Aus-tralians are internet users, of which 75% use the internet for video content.

Not only that but when in excess of 9 million Australians are connected through Facebook any disruption to the way in which we disseminate and consume information could be thoroughly detrimental.

Meanwhile, the Australian government is com-mitted to a $35 billion National Broadband Network to be completed in 2021, the largest infrastructure project in Australia of all-time.

Essentially, SOPA and PIPA would mean that most user-generated sites would be shutdown.

Users would be unable to consume content as

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freely as they once had and the National Broad-band Network would be no where near the game changer it is expected to be.

ASL?

Who are these censorship supporters anyway?

Politicians on the otherside of the world are dictating the terms of our internet consumption with blatant disregard for our own understand-ings of freedom.

It seems even stranger that, given the stereotype of elderly people not understanding technology and the internet, that the internet’s fate would lie with a group of high-powered, old people.

The so-called ‘leaders of the free world’, who have grown up in the world that was nowhere near as connected as today are taking steps that protect private interests over freedom of infor-mation rights.

The sheer audacity of America taking swipes at China’s freedom of information policy is almost laughable as it tries to censor not only its infor-mation but also information from the rest of the world.

What this new age virtual war does reveal is that online censorship will be a worldwide battle.

But this time, it will be harder for America to find a Coalition of the Willing.

Farewell, BTjunkie.

For the longest time (2005-12) you gave me con-tent for free and expected nothing in return.

I seamlessly took you for all that you were worth and now you are gone.

I never truly appreciated how integral you were to keeping me culturally aware.

Now I have to use ThePirateBay - but I will never forget you.

Adieu.

An ode to btjunkie

Carlton Morteson

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hey pilgrim!bees make honeythe kerouac jacks on forest be berlin berlinone night motelthe dirty treestales of alen above elk the beverlies fox thoughts Queys of rye

So you want to start an indie band?

A helpful hipsterIt takes more than sweet synth-melodies and heart-felt harmonies for a band to make it ‘big’.

Sure sometimes we can replace the drummer with a more primal touch but don’t think that it’s all about the music.

Bands rise and fall in fame but their names will always remain.

Make your band buzz with a real catchy-hipster label.

Here’s a list of ten indie band names to help you make it big:

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Fiction

I’ve got nine dark theatres on myself.

And seats that stick like old reviews.

There was magic here.

And then the whole damn thing burnt down.

Evacuate?

No one told me anything about evacuate.

No lights up, no sirens wailed.

I thought it was fantasy.

It was there and then these credits scared you away.

Evacuate, you have let me down.

And now I am amongst the rubble.

Underneath a screen that keeps me warm.

On bricks that make my pillow hard.

And on dreams that reek of old popcorn.

Fin.

Nine (9) Dark TheatresRoscoe Whalan

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A short account of a man who realised his own story by telling those of others:

It would start off with a writer that wanted to do something that hadn’t been done before.

He would possibly have an epiphany whilst working a job that was stifling his creativity.

One day he would realise that the beauty in the world around him existed in the day-to-day behaviours of individuals more than anything else.

He would strive to tell the stories of the world and dedicate his entire life to it.

He would start by walking down the street; knocking on the doors of every home and asking if he could come in.

Sometimes he would be let in but sometimes he would not.

Perhaps he will meet a girl at one of the houses he visits, but she won’t let him in.

Well maybe physically, she will let him in. But not inside her head, her world.

He might go back there because he is drawn to her and what her story might be.

She may be blonde – or even brunette. But she most definitely would have green eyes.

He may then realise that knowing the story is not the true beauty but the mystery is.

He may also discover her story and no longer be at-tracted to her.

He will then aimlessly continue to pursue the story of everybody else, but often fail to consider his own.

When he grows old he will start to reflect on the stories he has written and not be satisfied with the number of stories he has revealed.

He may have written down over 10,000 stories.

In the time he had been writing stories – more stories to write would have become available.

He would realise that his self-appointed mission is impossible; that his self-prescribed meaning is indeed insurmountable.

He then would maybe spend some time trying to un-write the stories of those he had met before. Actually – he will start trying to change the stories that he has written before, struggling with his desire to tell true stories, yet inspirational.

There may be elements of an ulterior motive, where-by it may appear as if the protagonist is actually try-ing to rewrite history.

Readers may start to have doubts about whether they really see their protagonist and the story’s hero ‘suc-ceed’.

He could eventually die, and host the funeral of the man who knew all others, yet none of the attendees knew him at all.

His story will be masked by stories of others. Nothing would be uncovered. There would not be a revelation.

People wouldn’t cry because they wouldn’t know what to recall.

But the girl, with the green eyes – she cried for he left and never knew her at all.

A short account of a man who realised his story by telling those of others

Adam Patten

west beach

central markets

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And now I wait – doing nothingin a world of not much more.

But I’m still a day or two,ahead of this short fuse.

My pockets are brimming with all the right words,

But my handsare corks.

I considered the city,but the streets were too narrow.

I thought to myself –“Reschedule? Hardly.”

I planned on this for days now.I planned for this on days.

I cut circles out of books,and laid them on my shelf.

Took books out of the shelves,and left them in the rain.

My eyes were soaked-then crinkled.

Then no longer of value.They turned to ash.

I pushed my appointment,Until it was out of sight.

I left it on my bedside,And forgot I left the light on.

I could let the whole world out on bail,but my pockets weren’t as deep as this hell.

Sleeping in on weekdays

James Elliott

On A Wednesday EveningIn A Wednesday Café

Hands Touch Over TablesAnd Think Of Thursday

On My Wednesday NightIn A Weak Wednesday Bar

Aspects of HeartacheTurn to Liqueur

Western SuburbsOn South Western RoadsLeave Mirrors Of My ArmAs Past Thoughts Corrode

Crinkled In BoxesIn Rigid Old Closets

Are Crinkled Old PagesOf Old Thoughts I Posit

Fans Flung My ThoughtsAround Through My PastWinds Wept On Whispers

That Once Had Been Masked

Eyes Wide On WednesdayIn A Wednesday Out WestWalked Miles For No OneAnd Ran What Was Left

Wednesday RoadsJack Rister

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Unlearn.

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I never thought that my admiration (for you) had any linear correlation (with me).

But my happiness is hidden (somewhere) underneath your indiscretions.

Jesus is such a flashy name. But he still died.

And he became a figment - of history.

And now he’s subject to conspiracy.

What does that make me?

A stranger between the sheets.

An outcast on the street.

Too heavy for the wind to sweep me away.

Too down-trodden to make myself stand up straight.

And I become embedded into what this earth infers.

A coral reef. Jagged. Damp. Neglected.

Jagged edge.Stephanie Barnes

He was an entertainer,

who made his life on stage-

but what he manifest in spotlight,

eluded him in shade.

A poem shorter than its title: sub-title included.

Roscoe Whalan

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Clark sold statues of people laughing every day. His office was a small room, in the back shed, of his yard. Everyday Clark woke up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, washed his hair and cut his sand-wich into four. He locked the door before he would leave.

Clark often walked, but sometimes would take a bus, to the suburbs where he would meet his clients. Clark never had appointments, and so never wore a watch. He walked down driveways in shirts and slacks but never wore a tie. He would yell out “is anybody home?” halfway down the path, and once he reached the porch, “is anybody home?”

Clark never knocked.

He greeted his unassuming customers with a gaudy grin that replicated the statues he placed around him – like a set, in some diner, of an old American sitcom.

Clark broke the scene with an outstretched hand and would gleefully say, “Sorry, you just missed a rock solid joke” before laughing and finishing, “I’m Clark Pudney”. Often the customer would smile.

But regardless of Clark’s charming first impression his clients always remembered how their hand engulfed his. Indeed, Clark was well aware of his tiny hands and would chuckle nervously before inviting himself inside.

Clark avoided using his hands and hid them away in the dark recesses of his pockets, marinating in their own clammy persperation.

And Clark set out to make his hands small no longer. He found tape and wrapped it around his fin-ger. Not noticeable at first, Clark wrapped another layer and another until it became quite big.

Clark would raise his finger with authority and could wave it with command. But, in time, more tape was added and the finger grew - until he used his finger so much that it became heavy and strained.

Clark reinforced his menacing finger by bracing his wrist with more tape – and soon he had renewed strength. But his hand was stiff so he covered the rest - and with a heavy hand Clark strapped his arm. Until he was taped to his shoulder.

Clark became so fixated with getting bigger that before long his body was ravaged with tape. Clark became bound by his own infatuation and soon froze where he was.

No one bought the statues. But they laughed at Clark, their eyes bigger than his finger.

Burden and Pride: not a storyMeg Pearsons

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cube Tash McCammon

at 24

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