Throwback Thursday: ‘The Absence’ and ‘Creation Done Different’ by Erin Kirsh

Shaping Existence

In the Summer of 2020, we published a strange and magnificent pair of poems by Vancouver-based spoken word poet and author Erin Kirsh. You may remember her post-apocalyptic SF story ‘The Wind of a Train’ from Pulp Literature Issue 16, Autumn 2017′. Here, we present something quite different, the opening stanzas of ‘The Absence’. You can find both poems in Pulp Literature Issue 27, Summer 2020, on sale now till the December 15th!

The Absence

by Erin Kirsh

When we look into the open casket, there is nothing
but biblical blue velvet and a golden egg sparkling

like light off a disco ball. We glance away as if it’s you
in there, pale, motionless, the shrieking 

pink gone from your cheeks. The mourners dressed
like monarchs. Above them, rose butterflies frozen 

mid flap, suspended, and still, you too
had magnificent stillness, you too lived in between.

Find both these poweful poems and more in Issue 27, Summer 2020, ON SALE now until December 15th!

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Erin Kirsh is a writer and performer based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her short story ‘The Wind of a Train’ appeared in Pulp Literature Issue 16. 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.