There is a memory that has blistered into letters on my face
I have not held a baby
There is a repose in silence
Joining hands we become
a chain of paper dolls
rippling like hair caught in the current.
— from “The Universal Mystique Of Not-Writing”
Sometimes we live, and sometimes we live in the purgatory between magic and life. In the in-between we see relationships for what they really are, we see family and fairy tale and the world around us from an almost omniscient perspective.
Sascha Aurora Akhtar’s The Whimsy of Dank Ju-Ju (The Emma Press), is full of well, whimsy. These are fractured lines and playful punctuation, and we need every bit of it to really understand the world Akhtar paints.
This pamphlet feels broken, but that’s sort of the point. Magic is broken unless we understand the trick or allow ourselves to suspend our disbelief and just know that everything is taken care of, and that we are okay.
Purchase your copy of Sascha Aurora Akhtar’s The Whimsy of Dank Ju-Ju from The Emma Press.