I Remain Indoors by Gary Cummiskey

gary cummiske y i remain indoors

I Remain Indoors Gary Cummiskey

r T E A RO O M BOOKS

Some of these poems have previously appeared in Carapace and Incwadi.

Published by Tearoom Books 2013 Stockholm, Sweden I Remain Indoors Š Gary Cummiskey Cover and graphic design by Jenny Kellerman Pillay

To Santoka Taneda

The woman eats a

large pizza as she reads Margie Orford

On the first spring day

I wear a short-sleeved shirt

Memory: 18 years old,

hitchhiking 26 miles to the Stamford Book Fair

In the restaurant,

everyone talks except those alone

A month in advance

I imagine scattering my mom’s ashes

The voices outside the

window seem like they’re inside my head

The dogs stop

barking: The hill is steep

The young girl smiles

as she lifts the glass to her mouth

The till-slip lies

soaking in the rain

Books sell at

R10 apiece ‒ still no one buys

Collapsing into

ashes, the phoenix waved hello

Mist from the dam – where are we going?

Turning the page,

a streak of blood appears

Action movies on Friday

night – we watch a massacre in silent slow-mo

A white-haired woman

crosses the street: I think of my mother

The cat holds the

secret as the garden gate closes

At last some

sunshine, but still I remain indoors

Insomnia:

I want to leap out at the moon

Gary Cummiskey is a South African poet and publisher living in Johannesburg. He is the editor of Dye Hard Press, which he started in 1994.

He is the author of several poetry chapbooks, including Romancing the Dead (Tearoom Books, Durban 2009) and Sky Dreaming (Graffiti Kolkata, India 2011).

In 2009, he published Who was Sinclair Beiles? a collection of writings about the South African Beat poet, co-edited with Eva Kowalska.

His work has been published in the US, India, France, Sweden and Denmark. Two of his poems have inspired short films. He regularly contributes artwork to the Tearoom Books blog.

Cummiskey’s debut collection of short fiction, Off-ramp, will be published in 2013.

Also by Tearoom Books Glumlazi by Pravasan Pillay Knock Knock Jokes Pertaining to Common Human Ailments by Pravasan Pillay Romancing the Dead by Gary Cummiskey Reader Digest: Poetry and Recipes eds. Pravasan Pillay and Victoria Williams Loop #1 www.tearoombooks.blogspot.com