The Winter Hiatus

In order to accommodate current manuscripts for the 09 catalogue,
the offices at Read & Destroy will be closed for the winter.

We are still accepting submissions for consideration in internet posts and publications.
See the FAQ/Mission Statement for details.

The first block of E-FEATURES are tentatively scheduled for a spring release.



Publications currently in the works include:

"Nefasturris"
by Shahanazar Edkirmendjian

"The Unoriginal Works"
by various artists

"The Hair Falls Out in Clumps of Languages Long Dead"
by Ludovico De Medici

and

"Disco-Biscuits-Boney-Legs"
by Jillian Ward

Human Ruins

HUMAN RUINS
by Elisabeth Gillon

Mural plane displaying chaos.
The red line flames across a like ground.
A human skull dissected.
Human ruins.
Man in an anthill.
A single seeing eye behind a gas mask.
Aura pixilating out to nothing.
Human ruins.
Child incapable of nursing,
Moon sails a troubled sky.
Color made flame.
Human ruins.


©Elisabeth Gillon

The Hearth

The Hearth

Almost consumed
the huge log
holds together teasing
the flames that cling to it
curl round it, spit over it
into the hearth

The carbon seems solid,
last illusion of the tree,
and you, too, cling to it,
form so beautiful
you want it but refrain
from lifting it out

Still, it is great comfort
before it finally collapses,
no red giant, ending,
but simply our cycling sun,
its warmth that contains us


©Roberta Gould

Coming and Going

Coming and Going
by Roberta Gould

Death is coming and going
carousing around or lingering
A face in the sky watches
smiles, knowing
this, too, is passing
All flags and storms
are no more than this saying:
Breathe. blink, pause,
follow the sound of your heart
still beating
patterning the morass
and chaos


©Roberta Gould

Ether Stanzas

Ether Stanzas (Ätherstrophen)
Written by Emmy Hennings & Translated by William Seaton

Now I must dive off the great ball,
while in Paris a festival reigns.
People gather in the East Side Train Station
a bright silk-bannered hall,
but I am not among them.
I run off to the enormous room.
I mix in every dream.
And decode a thousand expressions.
A sick man lies in misery.
His last look hypnotizes me.
We long to go back to some lost summer day.
A black cross fills the room.

The Dance of Death

The Dance of Death
to the tune of “That’s how we live”
Written by Hugo Ball & Translated by William Seaton

So we die, so we die,
we die all the time,
because it feels so good to be put down.
Mornings spent in sleep and dream,
by midday we are there,
evenings already deep down in the grave.

Of war is built our house of joy.
Our sun is made of blood.
Death’s our trademark, our watchword.
We abandon wife and child.
What have they to do with us?
If only we could
leave ourselves.

That’s how we kill, that’s how we kill,
we’re killing every day
our brothers in the dance of death.
Brother, let me see you
brother, see your breast,
brother, you must go down and die.

We don’t mumble, we don’t grumble,
we’re silent every day
till the joint of the hip-bone turns.
Our bedstead’s hard
and dry our bread, the dear god bloody and begrimed.

We thank, oh, we thank you,
Kaiser, for your grace,
that you have chosen us for death..
Just sleep now, sleep soft and still,
until you wake,
oh, our poor bodies, covered by the grass.

Cells Constrict

Cell's Constrict
By Shahnazar Edkirmendjian

As they broke me in the branch,
of warnings that imbued behind my naval gasps.
My salt coat bares the carp of the lakes that we fish,
Cells constrict, and Uriel revels in clean meat at sundown.



©Shanazar Edkirmendjian (October 2004)