FRUiTS 165

fatima aamer bilal, excerpt from moony moonless sky’s ‘i am an observer, but not by choice.’

[text id: my fist has always been clenched around the handle of an invisible suitcase. / i am always ready to leave. / there is not a single room in this world where i belong.]

Turnstile ☆ Roadrunner, Boston MA ☆ 11.19.2022

Stefanie Schneider, White Trash Beautiful II (29 Palms, CA) (1999)

From Instantdreams

FRUiTS 165

April 2011

“Shelly Duvall” by Mr. E Gallery

Henri Cartier-Bresson

The Museum of Modern Art, New York

1964

Minneapolis Institute of Art collection

©Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum Photos

Vivien McDermid (Scottish, 1981) - Swan Silence (2022)

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple

With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.

And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves

And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired

And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells

And run my stick along the public railings

And make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in my slippers in the rain

And pick flowers in other people’s gardens

And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat

And eat three pounds of sausages at a go

Or only bread and pickle for a week

And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry

And pay our rent and not swear in the street

And set a good example for the children.

We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practise a little now?

So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised

When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

— Warning, Jenny Joseph