Vivienne Austen

Category: Uncategorized

  • The Reading Year in Review

    2017 has been a lot of things. On a global and personal scale: overwhelming, challenging, harrowing. There have also been truly good things. We measure out one year on the calendar and give meaning to the passage of time. It’s always swings and roundabouts. I’d like to talk about one of the things I enjoyed…

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  • Lipsmackers

    She said we’ll go for a walk, but first, we apply glitter to our lids and that sticky gloss tasting of cough medicine Wearing low-slung jeans feels like freedom- we have ambitions, we dance in the school gym to Shakira, and to bands I can’t remember The reasons we eat lunch together, the same reasons…

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  • Humans Part One

    Humans Part One

    Today the clouds hang too low to be real I’d rather watch them than, oh, never mind Somebody rolls their eyes at the thing you fear the most and you feel a little less human for it They say words are survivable but we know better, don’t we? Fists curl to press crescent marks so…

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  • Mug of Hardship

    We have a relay team of misfortunes Torch passed back and forth, back and forth We’re tired but it fills the silence Exorcise the problem Through word and gesture   We could talk through ten, fifteen Assorted mugs of hot drinks There’s just something about Righteous anger That makes the day go faster

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  • A Possible Late Summer in 1992

    A Possible Late Summer in 1992

    Bones of cattle were a jigsaw puzzle, chalky in my hands.

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