s w i f t s  &  s l o w s: a quarterly of crisscrossings

2 & 2 Return
Kathleen Reichelt & Randee Silv

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Leaning Into Grey, Kathleen Reichelt

ouija board: you saw the future in leaves shored at the bottom of tea cups. played question games with ghosts, spelling out answers one letter at a time. tear shaped wood gliding soft as pastry flour over the alphabet. fingers knowing what’s what. did you learn these ways in middlesborough? bring them with you on the boat. fold them into your coat later teach the granddaughter who kept your recipe books. are there instructions for seeing future tense in the small brown cracks where black current syrup making has been told? flipping pages, finding foreign verbs. my eye moves with the cursive sweeps your hand made in pencil. dark as a funeral dress, light as chicory bloom. -K

concealing: salted by sea, lost overboard tarred feathers tattered ropes vanish before appearing. exit lights never stop flashing. her head a rose. her body a peacock. she pinpoints the whats the whens the whys thinking the sky will take notice. predictions read faster than decoys. glances register louder than antennas. night journeys topple from ladders refusing retreat. omissions drag. the wind slams shut. rosy thorns age in frozen smoke chained to tablecloths. garbage trucks storm by. seats empty row after row. i keep shuffling the deck. dice twirl like a toy top. -R

staticless: hurdled into single seconds. 23 sets. 14 volumes. the weight of sinking constellations hovers back & forth on doubly dizzifying magnetic rails. milk turns to glue. the day was extraordinary. spiderwebs lace over a sidewalk. confiscated incidents saturate out of sequence. branches gallop up staircases. everything burns too fast. she never left. she was never there. time/date/months flatten until snapping. animated holsters deliver hot glass splinters sold on pin cushions. silver leans on gray, saffron onto bronze. copykats wrestle meteorites for a cooking spree. clearance dances about. -R

Ticking pendulums, Randee Silv

parapet: gathering a decorative defence against flattering landscapes. navigating coercion. the difference between deciding and discovering stacked. confer defer refer obscure speak someone else’s mind. the grinding of midday formula is reason enough to prolong eventuality. flat grey heavy rock in hand can comfort mind floating abstractions without rest. up directed at ancients lining pans of our ancestor’s recipes, reining (in)herited preference for walls. commons nearly forgotten. extra parts cost extra. option for riots governs fingers. rock throwing is not swallowed without water. sticks in the throat this. -K

dead-eye north: plates under spoons. blades turned in. counting cards on camper van counter dogs bark bored by moonless dreaming. in a hurry to piss on trees we laugh sending them outside. between our plates we make space. fortunes get told. suggestions affirmations complications smoothed by sooth saying visions. folks next door shuffle string sounds. rings hit ear surface teeth stain red. quebecois french. thought gets broken by mosquito buzzing. we pass smoking leaf. rope hanging from one skinny pine. dogs whimper back inside. -K

jottings: backflips divided into thirds suffocate on purpose. stomping feet isn’t enough. she felt the breath of apparitions sooner than expected. invitations refused. frustrations mount.  alluring zig zags settle despite overhead telegrams stacked from seeping desire. abandoned felines sit on the car B4 pouncing. worthless bravos disintegrate. thick. thin. facedown in icy cold pools.  patterned auras stencil fairness sliced into crumbs. i repeated what she repeated what they repeated. flowering vines fail to entertain. -R

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Kathleen Reichelt creates with images, words, sound and stage. Her work reflects an ongoing exploration of contemporary themes, material, colour and form. Her writing has been published in Arteidolia, Bone Bouquet, and the anthology Suitcase of Chrysanthemums, great weather for MEDIA.  The artist has exhibited and performed in museums, galleries and theatres including Le Poisson Rouge, New York, Casa del Popola, Montreal, Silent Barn, Brooklyn, SAW Gallery, Ottawa, Project Gallery, Toronto and Folie Culture in Quebec City.

Abstract painter Randee Silv constructs wordslabs that emerge as gestures reshaped, juxtaposed, tilting fragments that alter between what is and isn’t. They’ve appeared in Posit, Urban Graffiti, Maudlin House, Sensitive Skin, Bone Bouquet & Otoliths. Her chapbook Farnessity has been published by dancing girl press (2018).