We're back with week two of work by the incredible Raoul Fernandes! Please check out his bio and earlier episode here and pick up his knock-out debut collection at your local independent bookstore.
Everything Must Go
The butcher shop closes down
and cleans out its insides. Everything
goes: cleavers, cutting boards,
hooks. The smell of blood fades,
the ghosts, if any, clear.
For a few months it’s only four white walls,
a small chair in a dim corner, and a light bulb
hanging from the ceiling.
We gaze through the front windows
coming home from parties
or night-school classes. It’s the nothing
we are drawn to, a kind of snowfall-nothing
or those empty pages at the end of a novel.
A month later, the Dollar Store
moves in and fills the room with racks
of glittering key chains and baskets
of toy dinosaurs.
We look in there less;
it’s still nothing, but a different kind.
I go in once to buy a broom, and another time
a dozen tea candles, even though
I had stepped inside
for something else.
(written by Raoul Fernandes, read by Chioke I'Anson)
That rad music you hear at the end is by Tigerrosa. Buy their debut album here
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