28.0: SECRET CITIES

Poetry Editor David Prater
Released July 2008
Index of Poems
Contributor Notes
Cover Image: Kathleen Asjes

The first in another binary pairing, SECRET CITIES was guest edited by David Prater, and foreshadowed the all-round breakthrough that would be PASTORAL.




Bev Braune: Concentrate on the utensils' constructions

Posted on June 30, 2008 by Bev Braune

It is not uncommon to accept dinner invitations here. An evening with a Chinese ambassador, a Chef and a Snake Charmer is unexpected. The dates are closely timed. Each man wants me for himself. A tour bus arrives to cheer …

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Nancy Anne Miller: Wikipedia

Posted on June 30, 2008 by Cordite Poetry Review

What is this on Wikipedia's web? The delicate feelers of a roach caught behind the screen? What exactly is it? A piece of a nun's habit, a headdress she forgot to put on? What? The wing of an insect torn …

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S. K. Kelen: A City

Posted on June 30, 2008 by S. K. Kelen

Children's laughter and their mothers' gossip was returning to the market place after years of random kidnappings, suicide bombings and sniper attacks but caveman needs evolved into beliefs too powerful to remain at peace: an invisible guide born in a …

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rob walker: at the experimental art foundation

Posted on June 30, 2008 by rob walker

first rain in months what little hair i have plastered on my scalp as i cross the wet city to leave some copies of micromacro at the dark horsey          growing from the grating framed in red brick and aluminium is …

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Sarah Jane Barnett: Aerodynamics of Bees

Posted on June 30, 2008 by Cordite Poetry Review

At first it looks like a dance, the two of us bombus, a swarm delirious with body heat. In the bedroom we are hidden from the city – an emerald set into the harbour, a flawed, crystalline knuckle duster. It's …

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Joanne Johns: A Bookish City

Posted on June 30, 2008 by Cordite Poetry Review

Within the borders of the city front, back and spine, I walks. Wandering along streets lined with Century Schoolbook, flanked by commuters in black tie. At the office, a newborn celebutante wails and cries repeatedly, testing modern lungs. I immediately …

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Cameron Brockmann: No One Wants to Fly to Brussels on a Saturday

Posted on June 30, 2008 by Cordite Poetry Review

Here we are again. Alone in the stale air of the airport terminal we passed each other a collection of blank glances. Up here anything seems possible. 'Do you have any hobbies?' 'Anchovies,' she replied.

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Cameron Brockmann: Dacia Express

Posted on June 30, 2008 by Cordite Poetry Review

23:25 The city as we passed through it was heavy with the vibration of tears. A trembling wasteland of ashes dancing Curved blade of the river cleaving through the middle. Melancholy rising from the bullet holes where the streets coiled …

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accretion to smuggle

Posted on June 30, 2008 by Ivy Alvarez

(The Everyday English Dictionary)   secret: I have stolen things – bricks an old mortarboard handfuls of cement dust smuggled in my pockets   city: everyone and their cats and dogs the press of legs accretions of noise dirt smog …

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Margaret Owen Ruckert: is there more to worry than lunch?

Posted on June 30, 2008 by Margaret Owen Ruckert

well before advertising shouted fresh a woman down Hunter St decorates her window as purveyor of edibles, proprietress of freshness she has no telephone to ring for supplies food webs of people seek her out carting fuel on foot, she's …

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Margaret Owen Ruckert: The Lunchbox Review

Posted on June 30, 2008 by Margaret Owen Ruckert

The Lunchbox is a convenient take-away food shop in Hunter Street, Sydney, next door to the Tobacconist and a few shops down from the well-known Golf Shop. The proprietress, Mrs Beatrice B. prides herself on providing fresh food daily. Sandwiches …

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Elizabeth Kate Switaj: \Bushwick\

Posted on June 30, 2008 by Cordite Poetry Review

Midnight Market: whole damn city & you pick yourselves over not saying you don't waste Goddamn you waste whatever you can peanuts in shells on Circus bar floor to real bamboo toothpicks holding olive over thimble ful of martini in …

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