Poetry and Prose by Erin Kirsh

A home for many genres, Pulp Literature is also a place for writers to showcase their cross-genre creations.

In Issue 16, Autumn 2017 we brought you ‘The Wind of a Train’, a short story by Erin Kirsh. And now, in Issue 27, Summer 2020, we bring you two of Erin’s spectacular poems: ‘Absence’ and ‘Creation Done Different’. Opening with the intriguing lines When we look into the open casket… and Behind me they massage the clay… these poems are alive with imagery and motion. To read on, pick up Issue 27, Summer 2020.

For now, settle into your seat with this excerpt from Issue 16, and watch as a post-apocalyptic future whistles past.

The Wind of a Train

by Erin Kirsh

I have thirty minutes to get to the station.  It doesn’t really matter which station, anything on the line will work, only I’m not really sure where I’ve gotten to. I don’t have the benefit of being from this city.

The Sinking was sudden.  A lot of places, including the coastal city I lived in, shook then were swallowed by water.  Those of us who were rescued got airlifted to other parts of the country, where, as it turns out, there’s not enough room for all of us.  I was an early recovery, I got here when people were feeling more hospitable.  The city wasn’t overrun then. Nobody wants to tell the survivors of a tragedy to fuck off until said survivors start inconveniencing them.  So being a sort of pioneer of the good ship shitstorm, I have a shelter of sorts, but it’ll be gone if I’m not back before midnight.  If things are lawless in the day, at night they are competitively piratical.  I didn’t mean to be out so late, but this city’s more or less unnavigable and it doesn’t take much wandering to end up far from Woodbine or Coxwell or any of the four street names I’ve memorized.  So I got lost, and now I’ve got two choices.  Get back to the place where I’m somewhat comfortable and my stuff remains unpoached as of yet, or move in on someone else’s territory and hope that the stuff I snatch is better than what I’d be giving up.

To find out what happens next, pick up your copy of Pulp Literature Issue 16, Autumn 2017 here!

And for more of ‘Absence’ and ‘Creation Done Different’, order your copy of Pulp Literature Issue 27, Summer 2020 here.

Erin Kirsh is a writer and performer based in Vancouver, British Columbia. A Pushcart Prize nominee, she has had her work published in The Malahat Review, Arc Poetry Magazine, EVENT, The Dalhousie Review, CV2, QWERTY, and Geist. She won The Molotov Cocktail’s 2017 Shadow Award for poetry. Visit her at erinkirsh.com or follow her on twitter @kirshwords.