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    Paper Crusade
    Paper Crusade
    Paper Crusade
    Ebook82 pages24 minutes

    Paper Crusade

    By Michelle Penn

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    About this ebook

    On a wasted island in perpetual sun, the Father practices magic, laments his lost kingdom and commands a ragtag army of three: the passionate and damaged Daughter, the winged Spirit and an indigenous being known only as C. Behind their uniforms — white suits and full-face paper masks — the soldiers seethe with rebellion.
    The arrival of the Boy, a hapless prince, and the Brother, the Father's rival, unleashes desire, betrayal, insanity and revenge — all of it witnessed by an irate sea.
    Paper Crusade is a bold reinvention of Shakespeare's play, The Tempest. Michelle Penn's vivid imagery and startling, sensual language create an unforgettable dystopia for our own time.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArachne Press
    Release dateJun 7, 2022
    ISBN9781913665685
    Paper Crusade
    Author

    Michelle Penn

    Michelle Penn is a dual UK/US national. She grew up in the US and lived/worked in France for seven years before moving to London in 2005. Michelle plans innovative poetry/art/music events as part of Corrupted Poetry. Her book-length poem, Paper Crusade, re-imagines Shakespeare's The Tempest as a dystopia and was published by Arachne Press in 2022. Michelle Penn’s debut pamphlet, Self-portrait as a diviner, failing (2018), won the Paper Swans Prize. Recent work has appeared in The Pomegranate, Under the Radar, Magma and Bad Lilies. Several of Michelle’s poems have been performed as part of Arachne’s Solstice Shorts Festivals, and published in their respective anthologies, Dusk; Noon Time and Tide and Words From the Brink. Michelle also has a poem in Byways

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      Book preview

      Paper Crusade - Michelle Penn

      The Sea, offended

      ~ I am no mother

      bearing life ~ in my depths ~

      ~ I am black ~ opaque

      ~ keeper

                 of the bones ~

                 ~ bodies foundering ~

      toppled from arrogance

                 burst apart like ships they sink

      ~ hours ~ days ~ to my deepest find ~

      ~ Humans are

      water ~ salt ~ and still they die

                 drowning

      in themselves ~ sliding

      through my rawest veils

      crushed and falling

                 to scrap ~ sea snow ~

      until my silt ~ repose of the bones

      ~ I am not kind

      ~ no Mother Ocean

      ~ This storm I did not order

      an impertinence ~

      Screaming squalls ~ wild lightning ~ so much

      cheap noise

      A man and a boy

      flung into my reach

      torn away ~ a tease ~

      ~ I will watch over what I

      am owed ~ No one

      games the sea ~

      Observing the storm he ordered, The Father recalls his escape

      img3.jpg

      Our raft a shell      adrift

      a bone flung

      from crest to crest

      img3.jpg

      SHADES OF CONJURERS PAST:

      MAKE THIS A DREAM

      SEND ME FAR, AWAKE AND WARM

      CRADLING THESE BOOKS, THIS CHILD

      img3.jpg

      (the words)

      (the waves)

      (the waves)

      img3.jpg

      My brother turned cheap thief

      under loan of night

      My crown        my wife in his fist

      while I’m set to sea

      img3.jpg

      on a slap-raft, bucking, pitching

      SHADES, MAKE THIS A DREAM

      These frigid waves, my girl     a page

      of flesh barely formed, already torn

      (the words)

      img3.jpg

      My head rakes

      the remaining oar, my cloak

      a sail laden with rain

      and I’m gripping my girl close

      (the waves)

      img3.jpg

      My books skid

      Find a spine, a corner, tap it twice

      SHADES OF CONJURERS PAST:

      TAME THESE SWELLS, BRACE US

      (the waves)

      Words, don’t let us die

      img3.jpg

      The Sea listens to a tale of missing histories

      ~ The Daughter prods ~

      …did you, father…? did you…? that

      wild sky… the sea

                 so vehement

      and a ship… tell me…

      ~ As always, he gazes past her

      toward the horizon ~

      img3.jpg

      Calm, my girl

      (the words)

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