The Menteur Spring Issue 2015

CANTERBURY - PARIS

No 5 SPRING 2015

THE MentEUR

THE FORMING

OF A FACE

by Jeff

POETRY

Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment To My Dead Dreaming Friend Twenty-four Hours TV Chef

FICTION

Jacques Brel for Beginners At The Wasserman Waiting

Musillo - Full story on page 2

ART

by Louise Evans, Alejandro Huertas, James Baxter, Christina Ball, Marjolein Verheij, Melody Grossman, Dean Atta and Ben Connors

JOURNALISM

An interview with Christine Cerrada and Jude Cook and an essay by Andrea Manara

The Menteur Time

Jeff Musillo, Based in Brooklyn NY, Jeff Musillo, is a published poet, novelist and actor, as well as a visual artist who works both on canvas and in digital format. He has had exhibits throughout The Heart Machine. He has also recently released his debut novel The Ease of Access, poetry chapbook Can You See That Sound, and Snapshot Americana.

Musillo’s work attempts to capture the phenomenon he calls ‘The Flash’, which is an exploraworking in a variety of different mediums. He explains that some of these images work well canvas.

The Menteur team spoke to him about his creative process.

What inspired this particular piece?

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the starting point of the painting. The initial inspiration to paint simply comes from the

issue in connection with my writing. On top of

to start a painting. But then, once I’m in it, I the actual piece in perhaps a peculiar way. I suppose it’s peculiar because I can’t properly explain it. The inspiration can come from the moment. It can come from the two formations on the canvas starting to come together as certain note or lyric from a song playing on my stereo. That’s the beauty of abstract painting.

Inspiration can come from a lot of places.

Can you tell us more about the technique you used?

the canvas creating the sought after motion of the piece.

The garage is spacious, which is always nice. again, that’s not the worst thing. I feel like I’ve I can hear the ticking of the clock. I think there might be metaphor in there as well.

What are your motivations as an artist?

My motivation to paint is really all about becoming lost. It’s a gift to start working on a

It’s one of those situations where the work is not actually work at all.

As you know, the theme of this issue of The Menteur is ‘Time’. Are there any particular aspects of time that interest or inspire you? for time. I’m not complaining. That’s just how

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another person relate to your creation.

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Dear Reader, Spring is upon us.

The Menteur The Menteur (

thementeur.com as well!

something if you haven’t before!

The Menteurs Index

2. Interview with Jeff MusIllo Cover artist 3.

4. untitled by louIse evans 5. Jacques Brel for Beginners by CatherIne MCnaMara - Fiction 8. sonnet 1 by CatherIne Madden achenbach system of empirically Based assessment

by Johanne M hauge 9. Interview with ChrIstIne Cerrada author of Le pays silencieux 12. the old Man and his Bottle by KatIe dorhety vI from field notes by Peter adKIns 13. Interview with Jude CooK author of 15. starting over by aleJandro huertas to My dead dreaming friend by darIus reJaIe 18. reassuringly small by dean atta and Ben Connors 19. haiku by davId thoMas

20. Moment by JaMes Baxter 22. at the Wasserman by JaCK Charter - Fiction 25. an extract from greyhound #4 by Ben Kountz 26. late by stuart a. Paterson 27. twenty-four hours by roBert Keal 28. doing things by Joanna MasKens 31. Portrait of a lady by ChrIstIna Ball 32. two stangers Who Were once lovers

by JessICa andreWs future sex by allen ashley - Haiku 33. timeturner by MarJoleIn verheIJ 34. Waiting by Caro Bushnell - Fiction art by Melody grossMan 40. Bunny rabbit Costume by rayha rose tv Chef by fIona InglIs 41. seven notes on nostalgia by andrea Manara 44. Bury Me under an apple tree by ross McClearly - Fiction 46.

47. Meet the Team

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Untitled

by Louise Evans

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Jacques FOR

BEGIN

Brel

NERS

by Cathe r

ineMcn amara

scratch on her eyes. With her black leather lettos. Her shins always caught Carla’s at-

-

-

-

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ways came here after the morning cours at -

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how you can live next to this.’

line’s scanning Carla knew there was another way she w a s

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watching the class. This was the way of -

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back. Carla felt a twist of power when

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he began to slice a ba-

summer, with his sister on Lake Geneva. He

she Would thInK that nothIng Would MaKe her

WIsh for sex agaIn.

about after the lesson, Bruno into Bruno’s face as he spoke were brown. There was nothing vulgar about the way she

for a bank.

sat above the kitchen sink, looking into an air shaft.

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olescent as there were a few pocks in his

on Lake Geneva, or if he came from a rathim to know nothing of her, nothing of the

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the cosy prism of a gentle present.

wine. jeans, a touch of belly skin.

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explaining her rates, probably showing him her tools.

you be so civil?’

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whether to open another bottle of wine, into the air.

Ne Me Quittes Pas

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-

She even thought of gathering her things

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Sonnet 1.

Catherine.Madden

S

All the university men have big boots so, of course I think of my dad who was an academic too, ok? and he wore this type of boot Chelsea boots, one black pair (his main ones) and a Brown pair (for parties?), and One day before I was six, how James and I put on one brown boot and one black boot each running round the garden with a mad matching pair, caving because our knees were where ankles should have been.

Does anyone even care about this anymore, Or, how I don't know what I’m doing?

Achenbach System of EmpiricallyBased Assessment Johanne. M. Hauge

Because I am a sophisticated woman I make choices based on empirical evidence ate one egg for breakfast took two paracetamol had a small metal object inserted into my uterus so that I won’t have children with anxiety disorders and eczema Dr Ahmed says my womb is on the small side I say I want my mum even though I am a sophisticated woman Dr Ahmed says she, too, wants her mum occasionally even though she is a doctor when I was little my mum said: don’t work yourself up breathe calmly Johanne come on breathe slowly calmly so I tried to I daren’t tell her that breathing calmly does fuck all I want us both to believe that if you wake her up at 4 am mum can make nightmares evaporate that a plump woman of 167 centimetres is stronger than axe murderers and Imhotep and spiders laying eggs in my cunt just because I came out of hers in three years I have to get the coil removed and then I might get pregnant and my child will be shit at breathing slowly and I’ll be no help at all GRANDMA! We’ll yell GRANDMA we had another nightmare we’re itchy and we’re scared of the dark

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AN INTERVIEW WITH

Christine Cerrada lauras

by Mathilde Lauras

Un mari ordinaire in 2013, Christine Cerrada has received further praise from critics upon the publication this summer of Le pays silencieux (both published by Michalon Editions). A barto write amidst these numerous demands.

Mathilde lauras: your inspiration?

Christine Cerrada:

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though. Because what makes writing interesting that when you start you never know

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structure of my thoughts.

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Ml: CC:

But it is necessary to accept it. That is the most important lesson I taught myself.

will improve what was written.

They want to write but are unable to. I believe they have not written anything because

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on it.

Ml: CC:

happen. But it is necessary to accept it as well because the mental process is just as

Ml:

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-

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-

CC:

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writing.

Ml: CC: -

time to go to the gym?’ Once writing comes to you, there is no way back. It becomes a

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THE OLD MAN AND HISbyBOTTLE Katie doherty he swears too much, he bitches too much There is an ass print in his seat, there are him 18 years to tell me he loves me through

Notes VIfrom Field

by Peter adkins The cliff-top cenotaph, as it were,

two yellow things together singing of the birches

the grass never was two metres high, the water never the earliest softest tears rolling more than one atom at a time

ooOOoo albion

Image by Maura Crowley

By Christina Browne & rayha rose

Easy?

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Jude Cook is the author of Byron Easy, a compelling novel about a poverty-stricken poet on board a train to Leeds. Set in 1999, this novel deals with the frenzy that de-siècle. After a brief moment in a band called Flamingoes, during the Britpop era, Jude went back to study as a mature student at UCL. Here is our interview with Jude Cook, which took place on a sunny Tuesday afternoon, in the back So Jude, we’ll start at the beginning; where were you born?

you can’t wait to escape from really. I left

ling a long narrative like a novel, to have a go at a play or a screen play, especially if you’ve got a narrative with a large cast,

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Where did you draw your inspiration for the novel?

Well, there are autobiographical elements back into his past, spanning over twenty years.

You mentioned ‘time’. Why did you decide to set it in 1999, at the turn of the century?

my twin brother to write music, to be in contemporary book, you can’t really talk So, it feels almost like a historical novel, a

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are manuscript assessment agents. The knew.

What was the most challenging thing about writing this novel?

edit your own work. How do you go about doing that? also being very honest with yourself. To

book halfway through.

Where did you get the inspiration for your characters?

like if I just cut that out?’ often turns out to

you’re never actually using real people. It’s

Are you writing anything new now?

spontaneously.

I suppose the inspiration comes from other characters in literature. If you’ve got

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If you could be the original author of any book, what would it be?

Vanity Fair. It’s just an all time classic with alive to every generation that picks it up.

begin to ask yourself, how evil is this man?

Hamlet? Or is he Iago?

My Life as a Man,

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Is there anyone who is undiscovered who you would recommend to be read? man, The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. It’s male protagonist which is really interesting, as a male psyche for a female writer

put themselves into experiences that peoextreme situations.

So, how did you go about getting your book published?

It was a long process, I mean I always say

If you could give one piece of advice to budding writers, what would it be?

Have as many experiences as possible. much as you can because that’s all going in a book shop because life is far more interesting.

for me. I suppose the worst thing you

me was when a couple of chapters won -

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think she gets it spot on. I’m sure she’ll be onto greater things.

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To my dead dreaming friend darIus reJaIe

I

remember

I.

Illustration

Starting over

by Alejandro Huertas

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how to be free,

in the Song of Hiawatha how the light falls,

where it was always summer.

the gentle rushing river

in amongst your city lights.

- even when the sleeping cars it was always summer.

with no concept of the future.

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II.

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C

a phone *

I was going.

*

*

-

But now,

Time stops

with the air in summer,

through the branches, warming the autumn

about.

(There are no memories when it rests on me, but joy! in my whole being

The house! the house. (packing your things away, Can you tell it’s my voice?

That all that yoga was for nothing!?

It’s like the only empty room -

- your room’s the only place you aren’t.

I

remember

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III.

Then how at once, it breaks. stairs,

thementeur.com Then nothing.

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ently over both of us.

sat twelve hours in the sun on my two blue cushions telling each other all about ourselves

until they became the same thing, or what summer was.

game

patience,

That is the best thing I remember.

I remember you saying it makes women like men,

I

came to see you before I left.

V.

then trying to explain then saying nothing.

*

*

*

I remember you a million small ways.

absolving,

whirling me hallucinating into an empty club

being in my life.

or something.

Then I run out of things to say or think.

I

bigger than the stars, stomping over Canterbury.

IV.

with you. what it was ?

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by Dean Atta and Ben Connors -

-

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Moment by James Baxter

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seamlessly, like something recently born.

that part of town which there wasn’t in the centre.

time for Teen Mom the program, almost as if in a trance. Her over her belly.

Teen Mom at her house. It was right after she came home from swimming, when she

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-

speaking in fast, throwaway sentences

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feeling slight hallucinatory effects from his lack of sleep the night before, when he -

high constant echoing of the water, that normally phase it out when I’m there with my back for a while, listening. It was relax-

talk to you about something. It’s important.

was there. He swung his backpack from his

ing each other in the face, but she strugeye. Listening to the boys’ laughter, he this time. his sketch, taking some of his frustration

at. in the lower level of the museum, as the

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to a case containing a cross-section of a

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eyelashes.

in the case with electronic shutter-clicks of their

spoke in what he thought was Russian. Their low

about to fall asleep.

There weren’t many people left in the museum. It must have been about lunchtime. He wasn’t very hungry, having eaten a big stack of

way over.

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The employees in the break room who

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greyhound galloP Ben Kountz an extract from

greyhound #4: absolute wand Image by Maura Crowley berry at the lining of what we

Deliverance where

I mean it’s all part of the system,

Late

by stuart a. Paterson

French fog slinking up from the Loing

The lights in the other rooms are out.

Their inhabitants aren’t Scottish, to muse on evocative fog, nibble gingerly

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Twenty-four hours by robert Keal

groups a long way not here. out respite, just so I keep my brain above water. Time is for

Image by Tommy O’Donoghue

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T g h n i i n o gs D

by Joanna Maskens

The email, the hoovering, the phone call, the bank transfer, the essay plan, the

your housemate locks themselves out of the house in their pyjamas, the ten minute

It’s not so much the way it happens as the way you think it happens. apart from, the break-up, the move-on, the evening when you know your limits, the

cat’s eyes when she sits on her forepaws

remember your limits, the evening when

the sultanas that you thought were raisins when you look it up the confusion remains,

lesson, the French lesson, the make up application, the university application, the job application, the council tax exemp-

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you breathe on average about 5 million upstairs bathroom sink while the party -

to vote in, the facebook message that you to pluck up the courage to even look at it

I heard you breathe on average about 5 million times a year

sure about some of the people I’m meeting

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is stronger than concrete.

the pink lipstick, the ice cream truck at the

It’s not so much the way in which we fall into each other as the way in which we fall away from each other. Too soon. Too willingly.

slick of sweat on the arm rest of the bus Collect library 2.30 app. h/w. What’s that thing

There is no point to this!

That’s the point, dear. companion, contemplation. Crunching By the age of 18, you’ll have spent roughly harvest at sunset, running through the

25-30 years. Tell me, How Many Wrinkles Do You Really Have?

push a lawsuit against inbuilt biology on

The alarm clock song that haunts me, now I wonder how many times you’ve been had And I wonder how many plans have gone

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bad I wonder how many times you had sex I wonder do you know who’ll be next means nothing to you, now, I guess.

We’ve had a hard time of it these past couple of weeks.

I’ve had a hard time of it these past couple of weeks. You’ve not gone through it in the same way.

You’ve not been feeling.

You’ve not been listening. I have been feeling.

We’ve been feeling in a different way.

We’ve always felt in different ways.

We’ve always felt in different ways?

No. No, we felt the same once. We used to believe we felt the same. Now you’ve stopped believing that I feel at all. I do feel, but I don’t feel the same.

I think this is when you leave.

I think it is.

my own life plan, the rate of my hairline be in fashion the winter after next, where

in a hippy commune, if I will actually have cony next summer leaving me numb from count on this or that, on one or the other, without all the facts? Who are you to ask

own mistakes?

But

-

It’s not so much trying not to fail as trying not to be caught failing.

-

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Look-ing. Hat-ing. Berat-ing.

ple’?

Watching each other watch each other.

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It’s not so much.

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Portrait of a lady

by Christina Ball

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Two strangers who were once lovers Jessica Andrews

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cellophane jewels tasting of cheese on toast cheap white

was the present.

Future Sex allen ashley can we get it together?

timeturner

by Marjolein verheij

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WAITING will support you every step of the way

gets Please no smoking

Some people

may appear not to be seen in order; this is because more than one surgery may be operating’.

ing machine beckons.

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anything up there or spill something up a

look carefully at the poster there are a few tiny

scuttle about in a cheap bag for pieces of

cigarettes on it.

up everything. The other visitor sits, as before, their breath.

if you were to ask this person what the poster see?’ attempts to light up this gloomy room with hot, sweet tea.

Give it up now’

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We

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serves.

-

was lost, mistook it for home’

releases the tight grip on the phone. tionless, just like well, you remember when you like a star?’ the young one swings their arms out -

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they are caught in a space somewhere between

is on slow manoeuvres in places like this. Where

thinking of you xx. battery warning.

has to be clean, but isn’t.

have things like that,’ the young one’s ocean

battery is on one bar. How will I charge it? It’s **** -

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OK

Readers

Digest

they sit. It is a private mark - just between them. It

a Swatch a new one at the airport, usually with some funky quartz movement. That was our Walkman

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The visitor looks up as the cleaner moves by,

asks the cleaner, she asks this as not to bother the other visitor, to give them a rest.

time?’

The rattle of trolleys sing out as the cleaners begin

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Melody grossman

continuing her practice there.

Her work examines the relaphotography, whilst looking at the effects of paint as a means for translating certain visuals particular it focuses on the process of abstraction that occurs when translating photography the notion of allowing imagery to move through time whilst

to explore the relationship

particularly through collage.

have left. What time will it be? There is no place to plug my phone into in this place, to revive it. the visitor now feels but a pang of panic. What along to the waiting room. There is no rush. He

-

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Bunny Rabbit Costume Rayha Rose

how we were so in love

isn’t it funny

to envelop my feet. Maybe love was you telling me our

opportunity to touch my chocolate tongue to yours. I am sorry. isn’t much

TV Chef Fiona Inglis

lovely lovelier, loveliest 42 times in a half hour show about how to cook a meal

synonyms beautiful, gorgeous took the toll well into the nineties.

Quite a skill really, when as much time steaming of seasonal veg.

Sometimes thinking it over

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Seven Notes on Nostalgia By andrea Manara translated by Jezebel Mansell

To write is also to stay silent.

(M. Duras, Écrire)

1. Is a forM of nostalgIa stIll PossIBle today?

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nostalgia, were I to say it.

2. (the lIBrary as nostalgIa)

le mot juste Fictions the name of the present opening itself to the present of all times, reaching verti-

3. (Before a MeMory : the hIstory of a ghost) Babylonian library in an attempt to know what I might say in a talk on nostalgia,

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nostos algia.

algos

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at least the vacant place of absence exists.

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ton’s Nadja -

4. (WrItIng the self as a nostalgIa of the Present) -

one critic opposes littérature de témoignage

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Tel Quel

narrative rules.

5. (nostalgIa, that PathetIC Word) -

of mourning

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diversity

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Poetics

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6. (nostalgIa for the Present)

the way one shares music or the taste of a fruit.

7. (a note for soMeone In the audIenCe)

at this very instant

ExpĂŠrience intĂŠrieure -

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by lines. I think that I am making some progress now, or anyway that I will come out pathos

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Bury Me under an apple tree

by ross McClearly

stage one: Preparation

will be less bothersome.

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stage two: sowing season

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stage three: Burial

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come a wriggling worm, shimmying across the earth when it rains, waiting to be eaten by a

stage four: harvest -

of hopes, I can have one more life.

stage five: rebirth

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smiling back at you.

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e u s s I t x e N e Th -

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The Redaction of

The Menteur

For the next issue we are looking for

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Meet the

teaM JEZEBEL

MARTINA ALLYSIA

MATHILDE Journalism

RAYHA CHRISTINA Journalism

JESSICA

MAURA

JOANNA

rt

rt

YUTO

CHRYSA

Journalism

MARJOLEIN

CAT

JACK

Fiction

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