Martha Sprackland

Новичóк

This is the deceptive border of the year – its crux – it has unique qualities. It can be disguised as a powder, as a precursor to pesticide.

The way to keep track of time is by the new buds blaring on the branch-ends acid-green and sleek as silk.

It’s sickening, their slick fecundity, their furtive spread. Hoist on the gold pins of their mount, their...

The affinity between the Fox, Wolf, Jackal, and several varieties of the Dog, in their external form and several of their properties, is so striking, that they appear to be only varieties of the same species.

Dr John Hunter

This ghostly archive, lined with labelled jars is full of light. Each pickled thing bleached to ivory sleeps in a glass flask of formaldehyde, shelves of pale stars...

for Roy ‘Dooms’ Sullivan (1912-83)

In ’42 the first bolt announced itself, cut a strip from his right leg and left him grappling the mud, smoke rising from the bloody cauter. The rain touched his face with the brief regret of someone who has knocked out their lover.

The second hauled him from the window of his truck, razed his hairline, and split his brow in factions...