The Semantics of Starvation single work   prose  
Issue Details: First known date: 2019... 2019 The Semantics of Starvation
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'I used to go down to the local pool, biding time between hospital stints. I waded in the shallow end through the heat of summer as my sister did laps in the next lane. I could often only walk a few steps before stopping. My lungs felt strained and my heart had developed random piercing pains. A lifeguard watched closely from nearby. I remember looking at myself in the change room afterwards and being frightened. I had initially caught sight of myself in my peripheral vision and I—unexpectedly—suddenly appeared clearly. I normally saw myself as I had always looked and struggled to perceive the changes wrought by a thirty-kilo weight loss. But when I saw myself, this time, from the corner of my eye, it struck me that I looked like a starved bird. All bones and veins, palpitating. I  was a diaphanous skeleton with human gestures, but without a face. An assortment of features had gathered on my skull, but failed to impersonate anything recognisably human. I avoided eye contact because when I found it I saw nothing but a reflection of the spectre I had become.' (Introduction)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

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    y separately published work icon Westerly vol. 64 no. 2 2019 18372829 2019 periodical issue 'This issue of Westerly, while unthemed, is as always the product of a system of order. It is curated, edited, arranged according to a sequence of publication. It follows certain methods, and is set out according to prevailing structures. Each issue exists within the context of what has come before, and what might come in the future. Even within each text, language has its own orders and forms, grammar determines expression. The issue is also testament to the individual—the function of the subjective within a system. With this issue, we are excited to introduce Paul Munden as our new Poetry Editor, taking forward the legacy of Cassandra Atherton’s work over the last four years. We have been very grateful to Cassandra, and we are thrilled that she will continue to contribute to our team, joining Lucy Dougan in the role of Commissions Editor. We are equally happy to be working now with Paul in the selection and curation of Westerly’s poetry offerings. On this occasion, and in this selection, our attention has been drawn to questions of order. Submissions dictate their own ordering of the world: the order of things rising to meet us, occupying our minds and bodies. (Catherine Noske and Josephine Taylor, Editorial introduction) 2019 pg. 57-65
Last amended 2 Dec 2019 13:22:17
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