extract from “where elocution ends and dance robots begin” by thom heinrich (2002)

“beyond the age of thirty three, the quietest place to spend an afternoon is in the bedroom. at that time in a person’s life, the likelihood of being undressed by someone you find remotely attractive decreases rapidly, hitting zero at about forty five. facing this prospect, i felt obliged to sleep with anyone who passed by my living room window. i decided that i would sleep with any person, anywhere and i was sure i wouldn’t feel a shred of guilt or remorse.

when i told friends about my new lifestyle, they felt that thirty three was too early to have a mid-life crisis and suggested that i should put this off for at least another seven years. but i always was an early bloomer so i didn’t want to miss the boat.

extract from ‘my love, the astrobiologist’ by elsie jones (1947)

"if only aliens would invade....then i know you would be happy"

extract from ‘father, i’m keeping the kid’ by karen o’shea (1986)

“i fell in love once, when i wasn’t looking where i was going. her name escapes me now but i know it rhymed with ‘orange’. we did everything that couples do and did. that is to say, we spent a lot of time together in different rooms – the cinema, the restaurant, the bedroom, the living room, the terminal, the bar. but for some reason, she died one afternoon. it was an act of unparalleled cruelty on her part. i was finally starting to understand what the ramones haven’t been singing about. she had gotten through all of my ridiculous masks and found the rather plain person underneath. i’ll never make that mistake again.”

extract from “rest assured” by abdullah ibrahim (1972)

“i spent too long in the countryside to ever notice the sky. when i moved to the city, that changed. boxed in between rows of skyscrapers, the sky suddenly became valuable to me. it seemed so anachronistic but more appropriate to the future than the past. it was, after all, something that i had never imagined before; how could it belong to the past? before too long i began to spend an hour each day walking along the city’s avenues, looking at that gap between concrete, metal and glass. there was something gloriously pathetic about seeing the future kettled in like that.”