New Voices Rise vol II

Page 120

Tomorrow it will be the rain My smile is rare, it’s a spear to pierce your flesh – a stick across your head, a dagger on the street with glint and tip and edge – sharp to slice – but now disguised as frown across my face that’s hidden in another life. I don’t say thanks as you drop a coin or if you smile as if you’d like to help, pat your pockets with a shrug then walk away. Your conscience clear, at least you saw me sitting here, at least you recognized my fright and didn’t pass as if the night had left me a transparent space of air. Your conscience isn’t my concern, you’re anonymous in every sense, you are my transience, in crowds of coats and trouser legs hidden in the blur that walks straight past – consumed by jobs and politics, you are the pain I’ve witnessed, to me your life does not exist. My smile is rare – tomorrow it will be the rain.

benjamin cusden

119


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Articles inside

Acknowledgements

2min
pages 180-182

Author biographies

5min
pages 175-179

Ayad Andrews Extract from Episode Four of The Fight of the Century – Ali v Frazier

3min
pages 171-174

Beth Emery Extract from The Conch Republic

3min
pages 157-159

Matt Wixey Extract from King of Fleas

2min
pages 154-156

Amy Powell Yeates You Can’t Kill the Spirit

6min
pages 147-153

Nancy Netherwood Extract from Night and Light and The Half-Light

4min
pages 143-146

Freya Mavor Extract from Something, Not Yet

5min
pages 135-142

Lily Levinson Extract from The Trial of Israel Lipski

4min
pages 130-134

Natalie Whittaker Poems from Tree

2min
pages 123-129

This

1min
page 122

Benjamin Cusden Note to the New Homeless

0
page 119

Transcience

0
page 121

Tomorrow it will be the rain

0
page 120

Zakia Carpenter-Hall The Earth-Eating Fire

3min
pages 114-118

Natalie Rule Extract from Beep, Drip Pump, a short story

6min
pages 108-113

Hannah Partos Working for a Hollywood Legend

5min
pages 105-107

Anna Parker Extract from Cottage

6min
pages 101-104

Marta Bausells Holidays in Saturn

4min
pages 87-89

Sarah Clegg Virgin Ghosts and Failed Mothers

5min
pages 90-92

Aaron Kilercioglu Crab Farts

6min
pages 97-100

Marina Gerner The Three Grandes Dames of Impressionism

6min
pages 93-96

Gaar Adams Extract from Guest Privileges

5min
pages 84-86

Ana Soria Extract from Santoku

5min
pages 77-83

Charlotte Newman Extract from The Magpie’s Daughter

6min
pages 65-68

Lisa Smith Extract from The Land of Milk and Honey

6min
pages 73-76

Yosola Olorunshola Extract from work in progress

5min
pages 69-72

Shakira Moise Extract from Mami Wata

6min
pages 61-64

Lanikai Krishnadasan Torrens Extract from Sea Glass

6min
pages 57-60

Daniel Marc Janes Amazon Reviews of a Bucket

6min
pages 51-56

Lucian Huxley Smith Extract from Micro

7min
pages 46-50

Carole Hailey Extract from His Darling Sister

6min
pages 42-45

Naina Bajekal Extract from A Better Life

6min
pages 21-24

Charlotte Forfieh Extract from April Fools

7min
pages 33-37

Chez Cotton Extract from The Brightlands Suicide

6min
pages 29-32

Helen Bain Extract from What Elspeth Did

5min
pages 17-20

Flora Carr Greenland Shark

6min
pages 25-28

Russell Franklin Extract from The Broken Places

7min
pages 38-41

Krystle Zara Appiah Extract from Rootless

4min
pages 14-16

About The London Library

1min
page 8
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