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PoetryJune 11, 2013

Hardening Off Process

Step 1: Watch
your forebear paint his portrait

in the living
room

eyes peek-a-booed by palms as
cumuli shroud
his 10 wan digits

Step 2: Listen
with respect to his favourite tape

he’ll ask the travel agent Wednesday
if Angelico can join him

when “This corpse will finally get to see
the Golden Gate Bridge—”

Step 3: Notice
how his hands shake
“Burgers ‘n’ shakes for everyone!”
when you thought you’d finally convinced him of the benefits of vegetarianism

Step 4: Ignore
as he swings a brief case in the trunk

embarks on the driver’s seat as
Mom alights beside

You’re too busy making tea
from two-hundred gunpowder worms to—

Step 5: Collapse
because he left without a hug

cant the handset to your sister
screech out the door as she explains:

“10-digit dialing
makes contacting the dead
even more difficult in dreams.”

Step 6: Start
—forgot to bring the plants inside.

 

~ Sarah-Jean Krahn

 

Sarah-Jean Krahn holds an MA in Cultural Studies and Critical Theory from McMaster University. Her writing has been published by the Canadian experimental journal dead (g)end(er) and is forthcoming in the second anthology of experimental press great weather for MEDIA and the academic journal Feminist Studies. Sarah-Jean is the co-editor of the creative writing journal S/tick.

Artwork: Destruction at its finest, by Russell Barnes

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One last love letter...

April 24, 2021

It has taken us some time and patience to come to this decision. TMS would not have seen the success that it did without our readers and the tireless team that ran the magazine for the better part of eight years.

But… all good things must come to an end, especially when we look at the ever-expanding art and literary landscape in Pakistan, the country of the magazine’s birth.

We are amazed and proud of what the next generation of creators are working with, the themes they are featuring, and their inclusivity in the diversity of voices they are publishing. When TMS began, this was the world we envisioned…

Though the magazine has closed and our submissions shuttered, this website will remain open for the foreseeable future as an archive of the great work we published and the astounding collection of diverse voices we were privileged to feature.

If, however, someone is interested in picking up the baton, please email Maryam Piracha, the editor, at maryamp@themissingslate.com.

Farewell, fam! It’s been quite a ride.

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