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Literature, PoetryAugust 25, 2013

The goldfish that swallowed my ashes

Goldfish
The goldfish that
swallowed my ashes
now heads down the Tiber

askew
one fin working harder
than the others
dragging itself away
cutting across several
shipping lanes
where notwithstanding
the blatant disregard
of the weekend couples
sun stretching on l’Isola Tiburina

it comes to
an heroic terminus
in a flurry of reeds
under a brolly
of broken condoms.

~ Daniel Roy Connelly

Though English by birth, Daniel Roy Connelly has spent much of his adult life being educated in Italy, India, Bangladesh, the USA and Scotland. Formerly a British diplomat, he has been an academic since 1999. He has a BA from Columbia University and a MLitt and PhD from the University of St Andrews. He has directed theatre on three continents and was until 2010 the Artistic Director of Zuloo Theatre in Shanghai, where his production of David Henry Hwang’s ‘M. Butterfly’ was forced to close by the Chinese secret police.  Daniel is currently an assistant professor at John Cabot University in Rome and at The American University of Rome.

Artwork: “Journey of Goldfish”, by Ebineyland

The goldfish that swallowed my ashes is a companion piece to The Disposal.

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Daniel ConnellyEbineylandpoetryweekend poem

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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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