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Literature, PoetrySeptember 27, 2015

Solving the Banking Crisis

Fish and Dog by Moeen Farooqi. Image Courtesy: ArtChowk Gallery

Fish and Dog by Moeen Farooqi. Image Courtesy: ArtChowk Gallery

A conspiracy of bankers is walking the plank
onto their speed boat with go-faster stripes,
lugging bags of swag so big you’d think
each contained a body. The sky is blue.

The sea is blue. Enter wave right,
Flipper who was frolicking on the crest of a wave
till he clocked them with his beady eye
that in another million years will surely

wink. Until then there is a job to be done,
criss-crossing the prow and splashing so hard
it’s like Glasgow in November and the steerer’s
blind. Are they terrible rocks ahoy?

Wrecked, the bankers doggie paddle into
the smugglers’ cave only to get caught in
the nets of a trawlerman who went bankrupt in
the recession, forcing his fishwife onto the game.

Meanwhile in another part of the sea,
Flipper’s flippering his tail so he’s walking
on water and clicking his teeth in a grin
at the handsomely arrived Police Patrol boat.

You want us to follow you to the cave,
Flipper
? He’s off like an outboard motor.
While the shivering crooks are cuffed and beaten,
there’s just one more job to be done. Yes,

that’s Flipper pulling up the bags of gold
from the murky depths with his bottle nose
so that primary schools can be built
with dolphin murals, the poor get rich,

the trawlerman buy new nets, his fishwife
come off the streets and the brave policemen
of the patrol boat have their pensions restored.
Well done, Flipper, you’ve saved us again.
~ Stuart Pickford

Stuart Pickford is the recipient of an Eric Gregory award. His first and only full collection, The Basics, was published by Redbeck Press (2002) and shortlisted for the Forward Best First Collection prize. Stuart lives in Harrogate, England, and teaches in a local comprehensive school.

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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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