The Vagabond Trust
Writers At Home In Migration

Leaf Garden Press, is going to publish two of my poems for their upcoming 9th issue. They have chosen the poems, “Greasy, Grey Corpse (Smells Like McD’s)” and “Yes, Extremism”. The journal is available online for free pdf download, and can also be ordered in physical form. The theme of the upcoming issue is “experimental works”. So I guess I’m experimental! Who woulda thunked it?

In honour of my Dad’s birthday, I thought I’d post the one and only sestina I’ve ever written (coincidentally, it’s about him, go figgur!). -Cannonball

VULCANIZED (April 14, 04)
- adj : 1) treated by a chemical or physical process to improve its properties (hardness, strength, odour and elasticity). 2) a process as detrimental to lungs as it is beneficial to rubber in tire making.

My father is a man of rotating rubber,
sentenced to work by the shift.
Benefits and wages owed him by the tire
manage, at times, to cover the cost
of the fumes’ 26-year reign of respiratory
seniority – always worth sticking it out for in the end.

I never know when his days will end.
Arriving home from school, the hamper smells of rubber,
the hallway full of the sounds of his respirations,
meaning he is sleeping off the 12 to 8 shift
and dreaming of what a life of leisure might cost –
the provider’s life one of missed moments, working to retire

comfortably and support four children, who he knows will never tire
of asking for financial assistance, and will end
up back home because they will spend, heedless of cost.
He modifies the parental gripe to, “Am I made of rubber?” –
alluding to his disdain for money-grubbing and our nasty ability to shift
his thoughts back to the place responsible for his ragged respirations.

Never one to complain, but always one to make his respiratory,
back and other discomforts known, Dad will kick the tires –
our soccer practice enablers – at the end of a frustrating shift.
His clichéd refrain, concerning them being his end,
always accompanies his foot bouncing off the rubber.
This gives him an outlet so he doesn’t accost

the management, who would love to remove his pension costs,
and hospital bills for the treatment of his vulcanized respiratory
tract, a side-effect of inhaling as much rubber
as he helps put on the road in the form of tires.
His occupational frustration usually meets its steel-toed end
on the sidewall of one of his creations, allowing him to shift

into the headspace of home, and focus on us instead of his shift.
Monotony and repetition are often accompanied by mental and physical costs,
but Dad now tries to embrace each day so that it will not end
in frustration, and has adopted a new way to respire
that provides more flexible airways, so when he retires
he can relax in a pool his health bought, made of dissimilar rubber.

At the end of his last shift
I hope all that rubber does not exact a human cost
and end his respirations, as one would deflate a tire.

Hey People,

Here is the link for Jerry Brown’s website.  Jerry is a graphic design artist currently living in Grand Manan.  Check his stuff out!

http://cceflyer.com/jerrybrown.html

-Eagle Eye

“I’ve got sea legs,”

I told the woman,

defiant and

strong.

Until that next wave

came along.

The Sundog has howled this advice to our attention from The Guardian (UK): 10 Rules for Writing Fiction

Peruse,

JT

I am elated tonight, because I have finished my G-Bew novel.  I wanted to share the news with someone who would care, for I feel very accomplished, and we’re not meeting till next week.  If anyone has a lot of time on their hands from now till next week, let me know and I will send the book your way.  I doubt I’ll probably have any takers on that, but the Fredericton VT will be getting a healthy dose next week.  Thank you all for the notes on the first 8 chapters, they proved to be indispensably valuable.  Those chapters are edited, and I don’t believe I will revisit them anytime soon, thanks to you fellas.  So, yes, thank you again to all!

- BoxCor Breezer

So I’ve opted to turn the Step Taylor page here at www.vagabondtrust.com into something of a blog. Two Val-oriented entries are now up.

xoxoxo,

Timber Tay

Hey peeps,

Katie gave a fab interview about our doings to the Torontoist books editor. Chekkit!

Hey Eastern Railcats:
Another great Vagabond Reads is speeding down the tracks to This Ain’t the Rosedale Library, this Friday February 12.

Our big literary Valentine to the city . . . chekkit:
http://thevagabondtrusttoronto.wordpress.com/

Heart,
Campeye

Here is a video of Library Scissorbill’s editor, Mike Lecky, reading his story Eric, Who is a Robot (from Greetings! From Gumdrop Mountain) at Pilot Books in Seattle.